Sunnydale: A Friend Indeed
by Alkaline2k2
Summary: Sequal to Sunnydale: Secrets Better Left Untold. The Scooby Gang faces their toughest challenge yet when prophecies surface regarding The Living Vampire.
1. Arrivals

Disclaimer:                    Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.

Continuity Note:           This story takes place about 3 months after the end of Sunnydale: Secrets Better Left Untold. Since this is part three of my series you should probably read parts one and two first but if you just want to skip ahead I always include brief character biographies. This chapter is the first to include extended biographies.

Colleen:            Colleen Danvers is Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth. Beyond being strong, fast, and able to access the collective pool of subconscious knowledge of all the previous Slayers, she also uses her competitive nature to good use as the Slayer.

Jordan:             Because of demonic ancestry that was previously dormant in the rest of his family, Jordan Clarke possesses impressive psychic abilities such as Extra Sensory Perception and Telekinesis. He was also chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions.

Holly:               The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon, Holly Nils possesses the abilities of a demon while still maintaining her human soul. She is able to shift into a demon form where her skin becomes gold and she gains incredible strength. Her low level psychic abilities allow her to read a person's weaknesses when she touches them, which has previously caused Holly to isolate herself in life.

Mike:               On the night that Mike Dalton should have died from a vampire attack he was actually reborn into an incredible new life. Because of a spell cast on him when he was younger the siring process transformed him into something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire. The once carefree basketball player now has a lot more to worry about.

Dawn:              Dawn Summers is actually the ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form. At one time she was unable to access the powers that lay dormant within her, but now after a spell performed by her boyfriend she has gained the ability to teleport. The eternally curious girl is now also learning how to fight to go along with her other new talents.

Aaron:              Learning is something that always came easy to Aaron O'Malley. It's no wonder that when he began working at The Magic Box that he would quickly pick up the art of magick. Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, the always joking teenager has developed an impressive amount of power.

*****

            Kyle walked out of his crypt into the night. He was a native of Sunnydale both as a human and as a vampire. Being a native was never as big of a deal as it had been lately. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason Sunnydale's vampire population had been exponentially increasing over the last few months. It was starting to make his life, or what he passed off as a life, a lot more difficult. With all the increased vampire activity it had become common knowledge that the Slayer had been working over time.

            It was only seconds after Kyle had even thought the word Slayer that he found his feet were suddenly no longer beneath him. He quickly got up and turned around expecting to be face to face with the girl of legend but he was confused when there was no one in front of him. That's when he felt a hard kick to his back that sent him stumbling forward. He spun around in time to see what he thought was a flash of green light. He looked around and again he saw nothing. Curiously, he scratched his forehead trying to figure out what was going on. It was only seconds later, with his fingers still scratching his head, that Kyle turned into dust. As the dust settled the form of a girl could be seen standing over the pile of dust that had only moments before been a vampire.

            "No vampires escape from Dawn, the Vampire Slayer," Dawn said as she put her stake back into her pants. She took a step and the fatigue of using her powers to teleport was evident on her face.

            "Vampire Slayer?" Colleen asked her friend with a smile on her face. "Aren't you being a little presumptuous?"

            "I'm a pro," Dawn said as she leaned on Colleen's shoulder a little bit for support. Her powers were still a little new to her, and using them a lot in a short amount of time tended to cause her to become tired easily.

            "You're a top seeded amateur," Colleen corrected Dawn. "But I do have to admit that your technique is getting better. I mean I think you're relying on your teleportation a little too much, but your fighting skills are definitely there."

            "Some of us need to rely on things like teleporting because we don't have preternatural strength," Dawn pointed out as she started to walk on her own.

            "Preternatural strength isn't everything," Colleen said. "Holly is probably stronger than I am and I could still take her."

            "I'll be sure to tell her you said that," Dawn teased Colleen.

            "And I'll be sure to tell Aaron what you told me happened last Saturday night," Colleen said with a devilish smile on her face.

            "You wouldn't," Dawn said, shocked that Colleen would even hint at something like that.

            "Oh wouldn't I?" Colleen asked Dawn. When she looked over at Dawn she spotted another vampire on the other side of the cemetery they were in. She grabbed the stake out of Dawn's waistband and ran in the direction of the vampire.

            "Oh no," Dawn said as she chased after the Slayer, "you're not getting out of this that easily."

*****

            Holly, in her demon form, was taking on two vampires at the same time. It wasn't that hard for her. She was stronger than the average vampire and could easily knock one hard enough to give her time to make an attempt to stake the other one. The problem with these two vampires was that they weren't fledglings. These vampires had some experience under their belts.

            Holly took a punch right to her face and fell back. One of the vampires ran towards her but Holly shoved her feet right into his gut and flipped him backwards. She got back to her feet just to be kicked in the face by the other vampire. He tried to kick her again but Holly ducked under his attack and grabbed his leg while it was still in the air. She then used the vampire's momentum to swing him around into the other vampire who had just gotten back up to his feet.

            Holly threw the vampire down and pulled out her stake. She moved towards the vampire who looked to be too hurt to put up a fight. Unfortunately, the vampire was faking being hurt and pulled the stake out of Holly's hand and jumped at her, punching her in the face and causing her to lose her balance slightly. The vampire came at Holly with the stake raised above his head when suddenly the stake propelled itself from the vampire's hand right into Holly's grasp. Holly didn't waste any more time and staked the vampire while he was still shocked. Without even turning around she pulled the stake back and stuck it in the chest of the second vampire who thought he was about to surprise the half-Sellar demon.

            "Thanks for the assist," Holly said as she shifted back into her human form.

            "Any time," Jordan said as he hopped off of the gravestone he was sitting on and walked over towards Holly.

            "That makes four tonight," Holly said with a slightly concerned look on her face. "I wonder how many the others have run into?"

            Jordan shrugged. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow. You know, when the world ends."

            Holly rolled her eyes. "Don't be so overly dramatic. It's not that big of a deal. Besides, weren't you the one who was complaining last week that summer was starting to get a little boring?"

            "Aren't I allowed to be capricious?" Jordan asked Holly with a laugh. "I don't think anyone is ever really ready to go back to school."

            "It will be a pain," Holly admitted. "This summer has been really cool. Well, aside from the sudden influx of vampires. I think are little group has gotten a lot closer."

            "Yeah definitely," Jordan said. "It's like we're one big family. A really weird family." Jordan pondered that for a moment. "I bet we would make for a really interesting Springer episode."

            Holly laughed. "I just hope that we can all stay this close even after school starts back up."

            "I think you mean that you hope that you and Mike will stay close even when school starts back up," Jordan corrected her with a grin.

            Holly blushed bright red. Jordan knew that he had hit the nail on the head. "Why don't you just say something to him?" Jordan asked his friend.

            "Because it's too complicated," Holly said. "I mean we have gotten really close over this summer but I've also gotten a lot closer with everyone, especially Colleen. Her and Mike have history and I couldn't come in between that."

            "I think that if Colleen and Mike were going to patch things up they would have done so by now," Jordan pointed out.

            "Well there's also the major problem with the whole situation," Holly said.

            "What's that?" Jordan asked her.

            "The fact that Mike would never notice me," Holly told Jordan. "Not like that I mean."

            "Why do you think like that all the time?" Jordan asked Holly. "You always think that you're worse than everyone else. When are you going to realize that it's not true?"

            "Mike doesn't date girls like me," Holly pointed out to Jordan. "I'm not an attractive, popular girl."

            "How could someone who is half lust demon not consider herself to be attractive?" Jordan asked Holly. "And I think that Mike isn't really one to go after the popular girl. I've seen you two together. I definitely think that something could come out of it."

            Holly thought about what Jordan said for a little bit. "It's just too weird," she said after a while.

            "Colleen's your friend right?" Jordan asked Holly. Holly nodded. "Then talk to her about it."

            "You say that like it would be an easy thing," Holly said to Jordan.

*****

            "All I'm saying is that I provide the most unique dynamic to the group," Aaron said to Mike while they patrolled in a different cemetery.

            "I don't really think that annoying is a dynamic," Mike told Aaron.

            "No see that very clearly illustrates my point," Aaron said back. "Because that wasn't funny, and it shouldn't be, because I'm the funny one."

            "Just keep telling yourself that," Mike said as he continued to scan for vampires. So far they had only run into one which was below average for these last few months.

            "And then I have the whole warlock thing going on," Aaron said. Since this night hadn't been full of vampires like most nights had been Aaron needed to keep talking to keep from getting bored.

            "I'll give you that," Mike said. Everyone had noticed how adept Aaron had become with magick lately.

            "And then I have the whole car thing going on too," Aaron said. "I mean I know it's not as cool as magick but it's still something." They walked in silence for a while. Aaron sighed. Silence was not Aaron's friend. "I mean seriously, the whole strength thing is kind of redundant."

            "And yet even though it's redundant I still feel the need to hit you over the head with something rather blunt," Mike said. Mike suddenly heard the sounds of footsteps behind him. He turned around in time to see a vampire that was about to spring itself on him and Aaron. Mike pushed Aaron away in order to protect him but he ended up pushing him right into a tree. When Aaron feel down unconscious Mike found it a little hard to really feel sorry for doing it to him.

            Mike began to fight with the vampire who obviously didn't think that Mike was going to be able to put up much of a fight. When the vampire did realize that Mike wasn't an ordinary human it quickly tried to run away. Mike checked on Aaron fast to make sure that he would be okay and then ran after the vampire. He caught up to the vampire just in time to watch it burst into flames. In front of where the vampire once stood was a guy that Mike figured was about his age. The teenager looked at Mike and suddenly came at him swinging. Although Mike had never met the person he was fighting he suddenly had a strange feeling that he knew who it was. I mean, how many super strong teenage boys could shoot fire from their hands?

            "You wouldn't happen to be Eben would you?" Mike asked right after he had punched Eben hard enough in the mouth to make him back up a few steps. The surprised look that Eben gave him was enough to confirm the truth for him. Mike knew that this fight was all a misunderstanding but something was stopping him from trying to clear that up. That something might have been the fact that Eben had slept with his girlfriend. Mike capitalized on Eben's surprise by kicking him in the face. "Just wanted to make sure."

*****

            "So is this the last cemetery on our list?" Holly asked Jordan. With all the new vampire activity the Scooby Gang had been splitting up in order to cover all of Sunnydale's many cemeteries.

            Jordan pulled a list out of his pocket and looked it over. "Yeah this is it."

            "Good," Holly said as she picked up her pace a little to get the cemetery covered. "The sooner we sweep through here the sooner we're going to be able to get home."

            "You shouldn't have said that," Jordan said to Holly. "Now we're not going to get home for at least an hour. You jinxed us."

            "Oh come on," Holly said, "It's not like our night is just going to get suddenly worse just because I want to get home."

            Jordan and Holly stopped in their tracks. In front of them were eight vampires. Holly was strong in her demon form but she wasn't strong enough to take on eight vampires. Nonetheless she quickly pulled her stake out of her bag.

            "Whoa not so fast," a tall vampire with a dark complexion said to Holly. "You Slayers are always thinking with your stakes. I am right with my assumption aren't I? I mean, what other girl on the Hellmouth would walk into a graveyard with a stake?"

            Holly wasn't going to break the news that she wasn't the Slayer. The vampire seemed to want to talk to the Slayer and if it bought her and Jordan enough time to figure out how to get out of there alive then there was no need to confess anything yet.

            "What do you want?" Holly asked him.

            The vampire smiled a wry smile. "I'm not one to skip formalities. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Cassio. And you are?"

            "Impatient," Holly said.

            The vampire's expression changed slightly but the smile still remained on his face. "Okay then I'll make this easy. I want to know where The Living Vampire is and I want to know now."

*****

            Mike had quickly realized that Eben was stronger than him and that he was also a better fighter. That wasn't going to stop Mike from trying to get a few good hits in. When Mike had found out that Colleen had cheated on him it had felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. He had loved Colleen and deep down he realized that he still did, although he knew that he wasn't going to try to peruse a relationship with her. However his feelings did help him to try to cause Eben as much pain as possible.

            "Okay that's enough of that," Aaron said as he walked towards Eben and Mike. He held his hands out and said a few words in Latin and suddenly Eben and Mike were standing very still.

            "Hello Eben," Aaron said to the fighter that he had only met once before. "I'm Aaron. We met once when he levitated me to the ceiling of the store I work in.

            Eben nodded as he remembered. "Yeah I remember. How have you been?"

            "Good," Aaron said. "This is my friend Mike and another warrior for the forces of good and all that. This must have just been one big misunderstanding." Aaron flashed Mike a look when he said misunderstanding. Aaron had a feeling that Mike knew exactly what he was doing. Mike gave Aaron an innocent look.

            "Oh," Mike said, "So you're Eben. Colleen told me about you."

            Eben's lips curled into a slight smile when Mike mentioned Colleen's name but almost as quickly as it happened Eben's lips went back to the way they were.

            "I'm hoping that if I let you guys go that you won't start fighting again," Aaron said. He looked at Mike and Eben and they looked like they had calmed down. Aaron waved his hand and suddenly Mike and Eben were once again free to move.

            "Sorry about that," Eben said as he attempted to apologize to Mike.

            "Yeah," Mike said. "I'm sure you are."

            Before Eben had a chance to question what Mike meant Aaron interjected. "So what are you doing back in Sunnydale?" Aaron asked.

            "Same reason I am always here," Eben said. "Trouble."

            "Trouble?" A large male vampire said as he approached, flanked by about six or seven other vampires. "It's funny that you mention that."

*****

            "Three vampires," Colleen said as her and Dawn walked towards Colleen's car that was parked at the cemetery they were leaving. "That would normally be an average number except for the fact that it is probably just a third of the vampires that were slain tonight." Colleen let out a sigh. "I just wish we knew what was going on with this sudden vampire migration."

            "I'm sure we'll figure it out," Dawn started to talk to Colleen but stopped as her head suddenly began to swim. She grabbed onto Colleen as she tried to balance herself.

            "Dawn are you okay?" Colleen asked, worried that it might be some kind of side effect from the spell that brought out her Key energies.

            "It's Jordan," Dawn said, her head still spinning, "He needs our help. I think. We have to go."

            "Where are they?" Colleen asked, but while she asked she noticed the swirl of green energy that appeared around herself and Dawn and suddenly they were standing at Holly and Jordan's side. Colleen staggered for a little bit. Teleportation isn't the easiest way to travel.

            "Well that was impressive," Cassio commented on Dawn and Colleen's arrival. "Kill them." The vampire's that were at his side advanced on the four teenagers. Holly shifted into demon form and Colleen started fighting too but with this many vampires it was overwhelming.

            "We have to run," Colleen said as her and Holly ran back towards Dawn and Jordan who also began to run. Dawn was being supported by Jordan and realized that they weren't going to be able to get away. With the last bit of her strength she teleported the four of them back to Colleen's car where she quickly collapsed into Jordan's arms. Jordan carried her over to Colleen's car and sat her in the back seat.

            "What was that about?" Colleen asked Holly.

"Big trouble," Holly said. "For Mike."

*****

            Mike and Eben worked together to fight off the cadre of vampires that attacked them. Aaron tried to help by attempting a spell to set the vampires on fire but he wasn't able to connect with any of them. Eben was too drained to use his fire abilities either. The vampire who had spoken earlier made his way over to Mike. He violently picked Mike up and held him so their faces were almost touching.

            "You two seem to fight well," the vampire almost complimented Mike and Eben. "Would either of you happen to be The Living Vampire?"

            Mike worked very hard not to let his surprise dictate his expression. After a few moments of silence the vampire got tired of Mike and threw him hard into a tree. The vampire looked towards Eben who was fighting off two vampires and started to make his way towards him when suddenly all the vampires were frozen in their tracks.

            Eben looked around in confusion and spotted Aaron concentrating very hard.

            "We have to get out of here," Aaron said. "I can't keep this up for very long."

            Eben nodded his head and helped Mike to his feet. All three of them ran for the entrance to the cemetery. When they had reached the exit Aaron and Mike noticed that Eben was no where to be seen.

            "Well that's not very polite," Aaron said.

            "Make joke later," Mike said as he ran to the passenger door of Aaron's Jeep. "Drive now."

            Aaron's spell had ended and the vampires were now moving quickly towards the exit as well. Aaron got into the jeep and started the engine quicker than the time he thought Xander saw him and Dawn in his car in the parking lot of their building.

*****

            "Well this is a great way to start off the school year," Mike said the next morning while the Scoobies were trying to get the books they needed for their class. "Every vampire in town is apparently looking for me."

            "Not every vampire," Jordan pointed out, "Just Cassio and that other guy."

            "Cortez," Aaron said. "I researched him last night. He's about three hundred years old. He's not a very nice guy."

            "Oh really?" Dawn joked with her boyfriend, "See that surprises me." She gave Aaron a playful smile and a kiss on his cheek.

            "We should probably hit the books tonight," Holly suggested. "Maybe we can find some link between Cassio and Cortez. Or maybe we can figure out why they would be after Mike."

            "That's probably a good idea," Colleen said. "I have a feeling that it's going to be an interesting year."

            As the Scooby Gang rounded the corner they spotted a face they never expected to see in Sunnydale High School. There, holding what appeared to be his new books for the upcoming school year and wearing a backpack just like any other student at Sunnydale High was the boy they only knew as Eben. Eben saw them and gave them a smile but turned and walked the other way.

            "Oh yeah," Aaron said. "This is going to be a very interesting year."

*****

Author's Note: Wow, this took a long time to get out. I hope this first chapter will leave everybody curious as to what is going to happen this year. And as any first episode should have we once again have another new character showing up in the opening credits. As always, feedback is very much so appreciated. I promise this should be a very interesting season. Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed and also to everyone who emailed me encouraging me to do another season.


	2. Big Sister's Clothes

Disclaimer:        Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.

Colleen:            Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth.

Jordan:             Psychic chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions.

Holly:               The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon.

Mike:               Something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire.

Dawn:              The ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form.

Aaron:              Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, this teenager has developed an impressive amount of power.

*****

            Dawn looked over at Colleen while they sat in Health Class. Colleen sat they way she usually sat in this class. While failing at being nonchalant, Colleen spent the entire class stealing glances at the other side of the room. On the other side of the room sat the boy known as Eben Valmont. Eben sat in the room and to anyone that didn't know him he would seem to be any other normal student at Sunnydale High School. He sat not really paying attention but still copying down the notes that the teacher put on the board. If anyone else thought that there was anything off about Eben it would just be the fact that he hadn't really made an effort to make any friends. In the three weeks that Eben had been living in Sunnydale he really hadn't talked to anyone that much.

            When the Scooby Gang had first seen Eben they had tried to find out why he was at their school. They also made an effort to try to get him into their group. However, Eben made it very clear that the reasons that he was there were his own and that he didn't have any intentions of hanging out with the Scoobies. Colleen took this news kind of hard. She made an effort to talk to Eben on her own. Dawn knew that Colleen thought that she could start a relationship with Eben. Although Colleen didn't really go into details, she said that Eben made it clear that he wasn't interested in a relationship.

            "So what's the plan for tonight?" Dawn asked Colleen. "The usually Friday slay and Bronze combo?"

            "Probably," Colleen said as she looked up from her notebook towards Dawn. "You and Aaron don't have any plans for the two of you?"

            Dawn chuckled. "I don't think Aaron ever really thinks about making plans for just the two of us," Dawn said with a smile. "I'm sure we'll spend time together later though."

            Colleen gave Dawn a smile. "Oh I get it," Colleen said. "Some private time between you two and the bed?"

            "No," Dawn said, "I mean, not exactly. I don't think either of us is anywhere near ready for that." Dawn paused as she remembered that Colleen wasn't a virgin. "I mean, not to say that you weren't ready when you did it."

            Colleen laughed. "It's okay; I didn't think you were calling me a slut."

            "That's good because I wasn't trying to," Dawn said. The bell rang and the two girls gathered their things and headed towards the door. They walked out the door right behind Eben. As Eben turned the corner walking away from Colleen and Dawn he happened to look over his shoulder. He gave them a smile and then walked off.

            "I just don't get it," Colleen said. "What is he hiding?"

            Dawn shrugged. "Maybe we just need to give him time? Like with Holly."

            "I don't know," Colleen said as they walked towards the exit of the school. "For some reason I think it's different."

            "What's different?" Jordan asked as he rounded a corner and joined up with Colleen and Dawn.

            "Eben's reasons for not wanting to hang out with us as opposed to Holly's reasoning," Dawn told him.

            "I wouldn't eliminate the possibility though," Jordan said. "I mean, we don't know anything about Eben. Maybe he is afraid of hurting us too."

            "He wasn't really afraid to hurt Mike," Colleen pointed out.

            "That was a misunderstanding though," Jordan said. The three of them spotted Aaron and Holly waiting for them at the doors. Normally Dawn and Colleen got a ride with Aaron and Jordan and Holly got a ride with Mike but today Mike had conditioning for Basketball. Mike decided that he was going to try to be a superhero and play basketball at the same time.

            "Hey," Aaron said as he saw Dawn. He leaned in and gave her a kiss. She smiled at him and they held hands as they walked out of the school.

            "Holly," Colleen said to the blonde girl, "Do you think Eben might be keeping his distance for the same reason that you used to?"

            Holly shrugged her shoulders. She had considered this before. "I'm not sure. I mean, he isn't really acting the way that I used to but you can never really tell how a person would react to a situation."

            "Do we really want someone like that joining our ragtag group of underdogs?" Aaron asked. "I mean, the guy throws three punches for every one word he says."

            "Maybe you should take a hint from him," Dawn teased her boyfriend with a smile.

            "Jordan," Aaron said to his best friend, "Would you like to sit shotgun?"

            "No way," Dawn said. She and Jordan exchanged a look and then ran to the car.

            "Hah," Dawn said as got to the passenger door first. "I win."

            "You cheated," Jordan said. "I'm not exactly sure how yet but I know that somehow you managed to cheat in some way."

            "Now now kids," Aaron said as he unlocked his jeep. "I'm not even going to bother starting this car if you're just going to fight."

*****

            Aaron dropped Holly and Colleen off at Holly's house. They had a project that they needed to work on for their History Class and decided that they should try to get it done this afternoon before they had to do any slaying. Colleen had only been over to Holly's house a few times. Holly wasn't really a big fan of having group meetings at her house.

            "Hi Ms. Nils," Colleen said to Holly's mother as they walked through Holly's living room towards her bedroom.

            Ms. Nils looked up from her newspaper and gave Colleen a small smile. Holly's mother wasn't exactly thrilled with Holly spending so much time with her friends lately but she wanted her daughter to be happy. "Hello Colleen," Ms. Nils said to Colleen as Colleen and Holly got to Holly's room.

            "This project looks pretty easy," Colleen said as she looked at the guidelines for their project. "It shouldn't take that long."

            "Yeah," Holly said. "But I'm glad that we're getting this out of the way."

            "Yeah," Colleen agreed, "Especially when you consider that any time that we plan on doing it we might have to drop everything to go save the world."

            "Save the world," Holly said with a small laugh, "That just sounds so weird."

            "I guess we haven't really saved the world a lot," Colleen said reflecting on the last few years. "I guess it's only been two or three times, depending on how you look at it."

            "That's still so unreal," Holly said.

            "Especially when you consider what other teenagers do with their time," Colleen said.

            Holly laughed. "We have the choice to just hang out at the Bronze all the time or go out and kill demons and we go with the demons every time." Holly paused. "Well, most of the time."

            "It's weird though," Colleen said. "It's like it should feel like we're missing out on all this normal high school stuff but most of the time it just doesn't feel like that. I guarantee our circle of friends is closer than any other circle of friends in school."

            "Definitely," Holly said with a smile.

            "Seriously," Colleen said, "You and Dawn are my best friends. I'm closer with you two than I am anyone else on this planet."

            Holly smiled really large. Sometimes she couldn't believe how lucky she was to have such amazing friends. Suddenly, Holly remembered what Jordan had told her about talking to Colleen about her feelings towards Mike. If Colleen hadn't said what she had said right then there was no way Holly would have even thought about bringing up the conversation.

            "You're my best friend too," Holly said to Colleen. "And that means that we can tell each other anything right?"

            "Of course," Colleen said to Holly. "What's wrong?"

            "Nothing is wrong really," Holly said. She was nervous as to how Colleen would react to what she was going to tell him. "It's just something that I really need to tell you."

            "Go ahead," Colleen said to Holly, curious as to what could have her friend so nervous. "I'm not going to judge you or anything."

            "Okay it's just," Holly paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "I have feelings for Mike."

            Colleen tried to contain her surprise. Her face hid what she thought on the inside. Mike? Mike Mike? Her Mike?

            "I know it's stupid and I know that you guys love each other but I had to tell you," Holly said. "It's just that I kept it inside for so long that I had to tell you."

            Colleen really thought hard about what she was just told. It was true that she had been in love with Mike and it was true that a part of her was going to keep loving Mike. However, that didn't change the fact that what her and Mike had was over. Neither of them was really thinking about trying again. And she had just told Holly how good of a friend she was to her and she meant it. When it came down to it, Colleen wanted her friends to be happy. If Mike and Holly could make each other happy then Colleen wasn't going to stand in her way.

            "Just a couple of corrections," Colleen said to Holly. "Mike and I might love each other but we definitely aren't in love anymore. There's a difference. And besides that it is definitely not stupid. I think that you guys could be great together."

            Holly was shocked. She smiled wider than she had ever smiled in her life.

            "I'll tell you what," Colleen said. "I'll see if I can get a vibe from Mike on the situation or maybe even talk to Aaron and Jordan and see if they know anything."

            Holly couldn't help it. She started to cry. Holly had cried several times when she was upset, but this was one of the few times that Holly was crying because she was happy. She was happy because she finally belonged. She reached across and hugged Colleen who just smiled.

*****

            Dawn and Aaron lay on Aaron's bed. They were both on top of the covers with their clothes on watching television. Although Aaron and Dawn were both beginning to realize how much they loved each other, neither of them were really eager to advance their relationship physically. Neither of them thought they were ready for that.

            "So what do you want to do tonight?" Dawn asked Aaron.

            "I thought we were patrolling?" Aaron said to Dawn. The groups for that night's patrol were Colleen, Holly, and Jordan and then Mike, Aaron, and Dawn.

            "I mean after that?" Dawn asked Aaron.

            "Bronze I guess," Aaron said. "And then me and you could get a movie or something and come back here."

            Dawn pulled herself closer to Aaron. "That's sounds good."

            "So how has your training been going?" Aaron asked Dawn. Aaron knew how important it was for Dawn to learn to fight. Ever since she had regained the knowledge of her existence as the Key Dawn had been eager to make the most she could out of herself.

            "It's going good," Dawn told Aaron. "I mean, I'm nothing compared to Buffy or Colleen but I'm learning."

            "You shouldn't really compare yourself to them," Aaron told Dawn. "They're slayers. That's setting the bar a little high."

            "I know," Dawn said. She sighed a little. "It's just that I've been around for so long and really, I haven't done anything. As long as I've existed and I've never really been a positive benefit on the world."

            "I disagree with that," Aaron said as he rolled over on top of Dawn. "You've completely changed my life."

            Dawn smiled as her and her boyfriend kissed.

*****

            "Dad," Mike yelled through his house. "I'm home." Mike didn't really have time to talk. He needed to get upstairs, take a shower, and then get over to Aaron's.

            "Mike?" Mr. Dalton called through the house.

            Mike sighed. "Who else would it be?" Mike's mother had died when Mike had been really young. He never knew her.

            "Can you come in the family room?" Mike's dad called to him. Mike sighed again. He really didn't have time for this.

            "Can it wait till tomorrow?" Mike asked. "I'm kind of late."

            "No," Mr. Dalton said. "It's important." Reluctantly, Mike stopped and began to run back down the stairs. He got to the family room and wasn't expecting what he saw. Mike's dad was sitting with his girlfriend, Stephanie Coban. The weird part though was Stephanie's son, Jack, was sitting there as well.

            "Mike you know Jack right?" Mike's dad asked him. Mike and Jack were in the same grade in school. At one point they had been in the same circle of friends but that was long before Mike had become the Living Vampire. Jack had actually helped the Scooby Gang last year, although Jack didn't really know what he had done.

            "Yeah," Mike said as he gave Jack a nod hello. Jack gave him a similar greeting. "What's going on?"

            "Stephanie and I have really exciting news that we wanted you two to be the first to hear," Mr. Dalton said as he held his girlfriend's hand. There was a pause that Mike guessed his father did for dramatic suspense. "We're engaged!" Ms. Coban held out her hand to show off her engagement ring.

            "That's great," Mike said, genuinely happy for his dad. "Congratulations. I have to go."

            "Mike wait," Mr. Dalton said, starting to get impatient with his son's impatience. "That's not all."

            Mike sat down with a small sigh that he hoped his dad hadn't heard. He really didn't have time for this.

            "Stephanie and Jack are going to be moving in?" Mr. Dalton announced.

            "What?" Jack said shocked. This must have been the first he had heard of this little piece of news. "When?"

            "As soon as we can sell our house," Stephanie told her son.

            Mike and Jack flashed each other a look. Neither of them really knew the other that well and now they were going to be living with each other? This was going to make Mike's life a lot more complicated.

            "Dad I'm seriously happy for the two of you but I really am late and I have to go," Mike said as he headed upstairs to his room without waiting to be told no.

*****

            "Jack Coban huh," Dawn said while on patrol. "Well I guess there could be worse step brothers to have."

            "I'm cool with Jack," Mike said. "I mean, STDs aren't airborne so I'll be safe." Dawn and Aaron both laughed at Mike's joke. "The thing I'm worried about is how I'm going to keep doing our extra curricular activity."

            "A step brother might make it hard to sneak out," Aaron said.

            "Especially one that could be sneaking out at all time of the night to see his latest conquest," Mike said.

            "Being that close to this whole thing," Dawn started, "He's going to find out sooner or later."

            "You say that like it's a bad thing," Mike said. "I would feel relieved to know what exactly is out there."

            "I think in most cases ignorance is definitely equivalent to bliss," Aaron agreed with Dawn."

            "So you would be against Plan: Just Tell the Truth?" Mike asked his friends.

            "Telling someone like that is almost not fair," Dawn said.

            "Speaking of not fair," Aaron said when he spotted Colleen, Holly, and Jordan in the cemetery that they were patrolling, "It's not fair to try to steal our kills. This is a competition."

            "No it isn't," Jordan said.

            "Yeah whatever," Aaron said.

            "What are you guys doing here?" Mike said as he pulled out his schedule for that's night's slaying. Aaron had in fact begun making schedules to help them optimize their efforts. "We definitely have this cemetery tonight."

            Colleen pulled out her schedule. "Whoops," she said. "I guess we went the wrong way after our last spot."

            "I wouldn't consider it a total loss," a new voice said from behind the group. Everyone turned to see Cassio standing not that far away from them. "At least not from my perspective."

            "Is this Cassio?" Mike asked.

            Colleen nodded. "That's him." She talked to Cassio. "Six against one really isn't looking good for you Cassio."

            Cassio looked around. "Oh I guess I did forget to bring my vampire lackeys." He shook his head in a mock form of disappoint. "What could I have been thinking?" Cassio snapped his fingers. Suddenly from all sides robed figures surrounded the Scooby Gang. "Maybe that I would have the Cult of Luther on hand?"

            None of the Scoobies were extra worried as the Cult attacked them. From what they could tell, the Cult appeared to be human. However, when one of the members stood in front of Holly and waved his hand in front of her, leaving Holly paralyzed, everyone got a lot more worried. One by one, almost all of the Scoobies were neutralized. The last Scooby capable of moving was Dawn, but the three men quickly approaching heard didn't look good for her.

            "Dawn," Jordan spoke directly into Dawn's mind. "You have to teleport and get out of here." Dawn looked confused. She didn't want to leave her friends but if she was captured she couldn't really help them. "Do it!" Jordan urged her. Right as the men were in range green energy danced around Dawn and she disappeared.

            "Well that's disappointing," Cassio said as he approached the Scoobies who were all frozen in place. "But all things considered, five out six isn't bad."

*****

            Dawn appeared in her room right beside her bed. When she materialized she instantly fell onto the bed. She came close to falling asleep but she knew that she couldn't do that. After lying down gathering her strength for a few minutes Dawn stood back up. She walked over to the weapon's chest that sat at the foot of her bed. After rummaging threw it she pulled out a small dagger and a broad sword. She closed the chest and walked over to her dresser. She opened a drawer and pulled out a silver locket that Aaron had given her. She put the locket in her hand and opened it to see the picture of her and Aaron looking back at her.

            "Locate," Dawn said to the locket. A small blue arrow appeared above the locket and spun around a few times before finally settling on a direction. Dawn smiled to herself. Aaron had enchanted this locate so if Dawn ever needed to find Aaron she would be able to.

            Dawn put the necklace around her neck and let out a sigh. She knew that she was going to have to do this sooner or later and decided that now was definitely going to have to be the time. Putting her dagger in the waistband of her pants and holding the sword at her side she walked into the family room of her apartment.

            "Xander," Dawn said as she interrupted Xander from watching television. "I need your help."

*****

            The cemetery where Dawn's friends had been attacked was now deserted. It was quiet and calm until there was a sudden swirl of green energy. As quickly as the swirl appeared it disappeared, leaving only a girl and a man.

            "Dawn that was amazing," Xander said as he faced Dawn, holding the sword.

            "Thanks," Dawn said as she leaned on Xander for support.

            "Dawn, are you okay?" Xander said with concern, helping Dawn stand up.

            "I'm fine," Dawn said as she balanced herself. "It's just that teleporting takes a lot out of me."

            "Maybe you should rest," Xander suggested.

            "There's no time," Dawn told him. They had already wasted a lot of time with explanations. Xander and Anya had wanted to know how Dawn had manifested her ability to teleport. Dawn gave them a very abridged version of the story. They had been concerned but understood that it was something that Dawn needed to do.

            Dawn took the locket in her and opened it again. She gave the magic word and the arrow once again appeared. Xander and Dawn walked in the direction it pointed. As they walked, Xander gave a little chuckle.

            "What's so funny?" Dawn asked him.

            "I never realized it till right now," Xander told Dawn.

            "Realized what?" Dawn asked.

            "How much you've grown up," Xander said to Dawn. He sighed. "None of us wanted this for you, especially not Buffy. No one wanted you to have to live this kind of a life. We all wanted you to live a normal, safe life."

            Dawn's expression changed to a sad one for an instant but then went back to a serious one.

            "But the thing is none of us realized that you were going to end up just like her. Just as brave, just as loyal, just as good of a friend," Xander said. "This might not have been what Buffy would have originally wanted, but seeing you now, I know that she would be proud."

            "Xander," Dawn said. She had no idea what to say.

            Xander pointed at a crypt that they were standing in front of. "I think that's where we're going."

            Dawn nodded and closed the locket. Cautiously, she and Xander walked into the crypt. The crypt appeared to be normal until they worked their way to the back. There they noticed an opening that lead to a winding flight of stairs lit by several torches.

            "This brings back memories," Xander said as he and Dawn began their decent down the steps. "It's kind of like going to a High School Reunion only without all the fat former cheerleaders."

            Dawn and Xander walked down the narrow winding staircase without being able to see the bottom. Eventually, they reached the end, only to be confronted by two guards. Xander meant to try to keep Dawn behind him but before he could do anything she snapped into action. These must not have been the same men that attacked Dawn's friends because they didn't perform the freezing spell.

            In less than a minute, Dawn had fought and beat her guard, leaving him unconscious on the ground. Xander also fought his guard, hitting him with the flat side of his sword and then punching him in the face a few times for good measure.

            "That was fun," Xander said.

            "There will be more," Dawn told him. She pulled out her necklace and checked which was to go. "This way," she said.

*****

            In a different room in the underground chamber the other Scoobies were all unconscious and chained to the walls. Jordan and Aaron were both bleeding from their wrists. Standing in front of Mike was Cassio. He took his fingernail and swiped it across Mike's wrist. Taking his finger to the bit of blood the trickled out of Mike's cut and tasting it, Cassio's eyes lit up with delight.

            "Finally," Cassio said to the monk who was in charge of the cult, "I was starting to get nervous."

            "This is the one?" the monk asked Cassio. Cassio nodded his head yes. The monk approached Mike and held his hand above Mike's chest. The palm of his hand gave off a white light. "There's magick at work here."  
  


            "What kind of magick?" Cassio inquired.

            "Powerful white magick," the monk told him. "It keeps this boy's soul in place."

            "So I'm guessing that my Ladron isn't going to be able to get past this magick," Cassio said.

            "No it won't," the monk told him.

            "Can you reverse the spell?" Cassio asked.

            The monk shook his head. "You're going to have to find out exactly what spell is causing this."

            "Huh," Cassio said with a sigh. "That could be a problem."

            Suddenly, Dawn and Xander burst into the room. While Cassio was shocked Xander was able to shove his sword through Cassio's gut. Although it didn't kill him, it did cause him a lot of pain. Xander punched him in the face and Cassio stumbled back. Xander turned around only to be face to face with the monk. The monk waved his hand and Xander was frozen. As the monk turned around he was face to face with Colleen, who knocked him out before he got the chance to knock her out again.

            Dawn meanwhile was doing the same thing to Aaron that she had to Dawn. Holding him around the waste she teleported the both of them a few feet away to remove him from his shackles. Once he was out of the chains he woke back up.

            "What happened?" Aaron asked.

            "Later," Dawn said, still holding onto Aaron, "Free the others," she told him.

            Aaron pointed towards Holly, Mike, and Jordan's shackles individually and each time he said "Liberato," and each time his friend dropped to the floor free of the chains.

            Meanwhile, Colleen fought with the injured Cassio. Colleen's stakes had been taken from her while she was chained up. The sword was on the other side of the room so Colleen was just trying to keep him at bay.

            "Colleen," Aaron said getting Colleen's attention, "We have to go." Colleen knew that more members of the cult would be on their way. She reluctantly gave Cassio one last blow and stood in a close group with her friends. They were encased in a green glow and then they were gone.

*****

            "Colleen is really a good fighter," Xander said from the front seat of Aaron's jeep. Mike and Dawn were in the back. Xander was trying to make small talk. "I mean, from what I saw she seemed to have the whole Slayer thing down."

            "Yeah," Dawn said. "Buffy would be happy that she took her place."

            There was a pause after talking about Buffy. "So Mike," Xander said breaking the silence, "Do you have a date yet for the Homecoming dance?"

            "Not yet," Mike said when Aaron stopped in front of his house, "But I have an idea. See you guys tomorrow," Mike said as he walked to his house. Mike did have someone in mind, and he wasn't sure how his friends were going to react, but he hoped that she would say yes.

*****

Author's Note: So what do you guys think of the special guest star? As always, any feedback whatsoever would be appreciated. The next chapter should be a good one because it's all about the big school dance.


	3. Hero's Ball

Disclaimer:        Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.

Colleen:            Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth.

Jordan:             Psychic chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions.

Holly:               The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon.

Mike:               Something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire.

Dawn:              The ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form.

Aaron:              Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, this teenager has developed an impressive amount of power.

*****

            "Can I ask you a question?" Mike asked Jordan while bumping him a volleyball. They were in gym class practicing volleyball skills. Mike hated volleyball skills. In most ways Mike was just a natural born athlete.

            "Well technically you already did," Jordan said as he missed the volleyball. Jordan was not a natural born athlete. "But I guess you could ask another one."

            "What happened between me and Colleen last year," Mike began. "Does everyone think that it was my fault?"

            Jordan was a little surprised by the question. "Your fault?" Jordan repeated to himself for clarification. "No way."

            "And no one thinks that it was Colleen's fault either right?" Mike asked him.

            Jordan shook his head. "I don't think anyone really thinks about it as anyone's fault," he explained. "I think everyone pretty much sees it as a bunch of screwed up things that happened."

            "Okay," Mike said. "I was just wondering."

            "Why?" Jordan asked him.

            "I've been thinking about doing something," Mike explained to Jordan. "And I didn't want to do it if everyone thought I was some kind of creep."

            Jordan looked at Mike curiously. "Are you going to elaborate on that or are you just going to leave me hanging?"

            Mike gave Jordan his trademark smile. "Let's just say that I'm going to ask someone to the Homecoming dance and it's not going to be Colleen."

            Jordan realized what Mike was saying and it took all the strength he had inside of him to contain the large grin that was trying to get out.

*****

            "Okay there he is," Aaron said while he and Colleen walked through the crowded halls on their way to lunch. "So here's the plan. I'll distract him with some kind of glamour or something and you sneak behind him and knock him out. Then, we take him back to your house and tie him down while I find some sort of mind control spell. During that time you can use him as your sexual-"

            "Finish that sentence and see what happens to you," Colleen said. Aaron could definitely tell that there was something different going on with Colleen today.

            "Okay," Aaron said. "That threat was seriously lacking the usual Colleen flair. You're not seriously going to get yourself all worked up over a guy, are you?"

            "Of course not," Colleen said. "I mean, I'm just going to walk over to him and talk. Because he is after all new in school and he doesn't have any friends. And then I will casually bring up the dance and see how he reacts."

            "I'm going to attempt to be serious here for a second," Aaron said. Colleen gave him a flip look. "No wait, listen. You've kind of been in relationship purgatory here lately and no offense, but I don't think that you can really take another disappointment right now."

            "As refreshing as you being concerned for me is," Colleen said, "I'm not going to fall to pieces if some guy turns me down."

            "Okay," Aaron said. "Good luck."

            Aaron worked his way into the cafeteria leaving Colleen alone. Colleen took a deep breath for confidence and flipped her hair back. Casually, Colleen walked towards where Eben was standing beside his locker.

            "Hey Eben," Colleen said as she walked up in front of the quiet boy.

            "Hello," Eben said in a puzzled voice.

            "So how has your transition into Sunnydale High School been?" Colleen asked him while she walked beside him.

            "Um," Eben thought about the question. "Average."

            "And how has you know," Colleen thought about how to phrase her question, "work been?"

            Eben took a second to figure out what she meant. "Fairly busy," he said. "I suppose you've noticed that too."

            "Yeah," Colleen said. "You know, we have a system down for going out there. If you ever wanted to work with us we could always use your help."

            "I work better alone," Eben said simply.

            "Right," Colleen said. "It's just that you said that The Powers sent you a vision saying you were needed her. Maybe they meant that you were, you know, needed with me." Colleen quickly decided that what she said should have been phrased differently. "Us. Needed with us."

            "I don't think that's what they meant," Eben said. There was a pause while they continued to walk together.

            "So what are you going to be doing this Friday night," Colleen asked Eben as nonchalantly as possible.

            "Patrolling," he told her.

            "I see," Colleen said. "It's just that Homecoming is this Friday and all of us were going to go."

            "Well then I guess it's good that I'll be patrolling," Eben said.

            Colleen stopped him. She couldn't take it any longer. "Why are you being so cold to me?"

            "What do you mean?" Eben asked her.

            Colleen's eyes showed how hurt she was. "Eben," Colleen said, "I know what we did together didn't really mean anything at the time, but it was still special." Eben looked a little uncomfortable but Colleen continued anyway. "I mean, I don't really expect anything from you Eben, but it would be nice if you came to the dance."

            "Colleen," Eben said as he took a step away from her. "What we did was special to me too, more than you probably imagine, but that's all. It was a moment of relief. We're not like the other people in this school. What we do means so much. We have more responsibilities that any of them could ever realize. And sometimes we have to give up things that should be important to us for the greater good. The good fight."

            Colleen watched as Eben turned down the hall. She replayed his words in her head and considered them. She knew that there were sacrifices to be made, but she knew that Eben had it wrong. You can't cut yourself off from life.

*****

            "I can't believe this," Holly said. She sat in the passenger seat of Mike's Camry as he drove her home from school. "Mrs. Rogers really expects us to get all of this reading done tonight? This is so unfair. I don't even want to be in Honors English."

            "That's the price you pay for scoring well on standardized tests," Mike said as he drove.

            "Emerson," Holly said with disgust. "I hate Emerson."

            "Can't you just use the usually Scooby emergency technique?" Mike asked Holly. Holly looked at him curiously. "Copy off of Aaron."

            Holly laughed. "Believe it or not Aaron has even more biased opinions than me when it comes to literature."

            "No one can be more opinionated than you when it comes to books," Mike told her. Holly smiled at him. Over the summer Mike and Holly hand bonded since they were kind of "the new people." Sure, they had been there since almost the beginning in one way or another, but they weren't there for the actual forming of the group. They weren't really a part of the foundation. It allowed Mike and Holly to renew their once great friendship.

            Of course, what Mike didn't know was that Holly's feelings for him went beyond just friendship. Holly cared so much for Mike. She wanted to call what she felt love but she didn't think that was fair. In Holly's mind, love was a connection, a mutual feeling. There couldn't be love if only one person felt it.

            "So," Mike said trying to act casually. "Homecoming is this Friday."

            "Yeah," Holly said. "Colleen and I are going to go help Dawn pick out a dress tomorrow."

            "So you're going to be dress shopping," Mike said. "I see."

            There was something weird going on and Holly had no clue what it was. "Yeah," she said. "Why, what were you going to be doing tomorrow?"

            "Well," Mike said as he turned down another residential street towards Holly's house, "If everything goes according to plan I'm going to be shopping for a suit."

            Holly skipped a breath. In the back of her mind she thought that maybe Mike was going to ask her to the dance. This would be the way that Mike would ask someone. But Holly refused to let herself think that it was possible. "What's this plan of yours?" Holly asked, trying to sound as casual as was humanly possible.

            "Well it's basically this," Mike said as he pulled into Holly's driveway. "Will you go to the dance with me?"

            In one moment Holly's life suddenly made sense. In one moment it was like all the pain and the fear had suddenly been erased from her past. It was like everything had been one big test to see if Holly was strong enough to deserve this moment. Unfortunately, Holly wasn't able to contain her excitement.

            "Are you serious?" Holly asked Mike, sounding like a school girl who just found out that she was getting back stage passes to a concert.

            "I'd be kind of a jerk if I was," Mike told her. Holly gave a shy smile and wasn't really able to make eye contact with Mike anymore. "So is that a yes..."

            Holly turned to look Mike in the eyes. "Of course," Holly said with a grin.

            "Perfect," Mike said as Holly got out of the car. "We should make plans with Aaron and Dawn to double or something."

            "That sounds good," Holly said as she turned to shut the door.

            "All right then," Mike said with another smile. Holly smiled back and shut the door. Walking to her front door she turned back to make sure that everything was real. She looked at Mike and he waved and beeped the horn. Holly lifted her hand and gave him a wave too. Holly turned around and opened her door.

            All of Holly's life had been filled with pain, fear, and doubt. For the first time in Holly's life she had been able to not think about that for a moment. The problem with moments though is that they pass so quickly. This wasn't an exception. Holly stood inside her door and just stared at the window in her living room. Whenever something good happened in Holly's life there was always a down that was soon to come. Holly had learned from an early age not to get her hopes up, but for this she was trying her hardest to not think that way.

*****

            The school was dark and deserted as the two men entered at night. It didn't matter that it was dark because they could both see without much light. There was only a janitor who they made short work of. It was really more of a snack.

            The two intruders made their way through the building towards the library. Once they were in they found the book they were looking for. Setting it on a desk, they flipped through the pages till the one figure found a familiar face.

            "There," Cortez said to the other vampire. "This is the boy I fought. I knew that he looked to be around high school age."

            "And we picked the right school on the first try," the other vampire said to Cortez. "So what do we do now? How are we going to find this Living Vampire when school is in the day?"

            Cortez walked away from the desk we he noticed a sign on the door. "I think I have an idea."

*****

            "Are you serious!" Dawn shouted way too loud in the hallway the next morning in school. Aaron and Dawn sat with Holly in the lounge of the school. Everyone was just arriving and no one was extremely awake yet. People were staring at the three of them after Dawn's outburst but Holly didn't exactly care.

            "Yeah," Holly said with a grin.

            "That's so great," Dawn said to her.

            "Yeah," Aaron agreed. "I mean, it's not like we don't spend every other second together. Why should a dance be any different?" Dawn elbowed him in his ribs. "I meant that in a positive way," Aaron explained. "I'm sorry if my default tone of voice is sarcastic."

            "Don't listen to him," Dawn told Holly. "He's just a moron. This is going to be so great. We are going to get the best dresses tonight."

            While Dawn talked to Holly a group of girls in their grade walked by them. As they walked by they all looked at Holly and, without even trying to act like they were doing something else, pointed at her and whispered to each other. Holly didn't even have to hear what they were saying. Their faces all screamed "her?"

            "That's right Kirsty," Dawn said to the girl as she passed by. The girl looked back at Dawn. "Mike's going to the dance with Holly." Kirsty gave her a look that could kill but didn't respond. She just looked at Holly, rolled her eyes and laughed a little, and then kept walking.

            "I hate that bitch," Aaron said. No one disagreed with him.

*****

            Colleen sat trying to do her work. Even though everyone else in the class was busy talking because there was a substitute, Colleen was uncharacteristically trying to get the Spanish work that she was already behind on finished. After a few minutes of trying to put it out of her mind, Colleen finally gave in.

            "What?" Colleen asked Jordan, point blank.

            "Does it bother you?" Jordan asked Colleen with the utmost sincerity.

            "You staring at me?" Colleen asked sarcastically. "Yeah, it's starting to get old real quick."

            "You know that's not what I meant," Jordan informed Colleen.

            Colleen sighed and set her pencil down. She turned to Jordan and looked him in the eyes. "No, it does not bother me that Mike asked Holly to the dance. For about the millionth time we are not together."

            "I've never exactly heard you say that you are over him though," Jordan pointed out.

            "I am though," Colleen said. "Over him. I'm over him. Completely." Jordan wasn't buying it. "Okay so maybe that's a stretch," Colleen admitted. "I mean, Mike was a lot my firsts. He was my first date, first kiss, first love, first-" Colleen stopped abruptly and Jordan gave her a sly smile. "I mean, I guess a part of me will never really be over him. But that doesn't mean that I'm going waste the rest of my life sitting around pining over my first boyfriend."

            "Rest of your life and a couple months later aren't exactly the same thing," Jordan pointed out. "And if what Aaron told me is true than you were rejected yesterday. So I don't think it's stepping beyond my boundaries as friend to find out if you're okay with your ex-boyfriend taking your friend to the dance is cool with you when it is obvious to everyone that you wanted to go to this dance in a big way."

            "Let me break it down," Colleen said. "Holly is my friend. Mike is my friend. If Holly and Mike make each other happy then I'm happy for them."

            "Make each other happy?" Jordan questioned Colleen's choice of words. "It's a date, it's not like they're engaged or anything."

            "I know," Colleen said. "You know what I mean."

            "But I mean it's not exactly like what they're doing has to be this big romantic thing right?" Jordan asked Colleen. "It could go either way you know. It could just be two friends hanging out or it could be a serious date."

            "Yeah exactly," Colleen agreed. "It's their lives. We'll just have to see what they choose to do."

            "But back to the friends thing," Jordan said to Colleen. "Two friends can go to a dance together. I mean, especially if one friend has been dying to go to the dance and will probably do nothing but complain to the other friend all night if they are the only two who aren't going to this dance."

            Colleen looked a little shocked. "Jordan, if that was you asking me out it was a really lame attempt."

            "That wasn't me asking you out," Jordan corrected her. "That was me preparing for this next sentence. Do you want to go to the dance with me friend?"

            "You basically just said this is a pity invite!" Colleen said to Jordan.

            "Yeah," Jordan said. "I mean, I have to settle for you because all of these other girls are just waiting around for me to ask them." Colleen smiled a little bit. "Come on Colleen, it will be fun. It will be the Scooby Gang hanging out in a non preternatural setting."

            "I'm guessing you aren't going to take no for an answer?" Colleen asked Jordan.

            "Wow," Jordan said, "Spare no punches with my self esteem."

            Colleen laughed again. "Okay, but don't think that just because we're going as friends that you get out of buying me dinner."

*****

            "Are you guys as excited as I am?" Dawn asked with a little bit too much enthusiasm while she, Colleen, and Holly tried on dresses. "Because seriously, I don't think you guys understand how excited I am."

            "Oh we understand," Colleen said sarcastically while she still maintained a smile that revealed that she was happy.

            "Yeah," Holly said, with a similar happy expression. "I think we really got the point around the ninth time you asked that, but when you broke twenty you really drove it home."

            "Come on guys," Dawn said. "Think about it. We finally get to have a normal high school experience. And the best part is we get to all do it together."

            "Yeah Dawn," Colleen said as she held a blue dress up against herself while looking in the mirror. "We know. Do you think this will look good on me?"

            Holly looked up from the dress rack she was at and looked at Colleen's choice. "Oh wow," Holly said. "You should definitely try that on."

            Dawn looked over and nodded. "Yeah that will look really good on you." Dawn continued to rummage through the dresses until she came across and black and gold sequenced dress. "Holly, stop looking, found the perfect dress for you."

            Holly looked over to the dress in Dawn's hands. "Oh no," She said, stumbling a little with her words. "I could never wear that."

            Colleen looked over at the dress and then back at Holly. "Why not?" She asked. "I mean, it keeps up the whole gold theme."

            "Well it's," Holly paused. She figured that they would realize what was wrong with the dress.

            "Yes," Dawn said. "We have established that it is in fact is."

            "It's too revealing," Holly finally finished.

            "So," Colleen said as she took the dress off of Dawn and brought it over to Holly. She made Holly stand in front of the mirror and held the dress in front of her. "It's prefect for you Holly."

            "I don't know," Holly said.

            "Holly," Colleen continued, "If you walk into the dance wearing this dress I guarantee that it will make all those stupid girls in our grade just stop and stare and realize how dumb they were to ever think anything bad about your appearance." As Colleen talked she pulled Holly's hair back to help her get a better idea of what she could look like.

            "Would you girls like to try anything on?" A clerk asked as she approached the three girls.

            "Yes," Colleen told her. "I would like to try this on and she is going to try this one on."

            Although she still felt a little bit of reluctance, Holly was forced into the dressing room by Colleen.

*****

            "So what are we thinking?" Aaron asked Mike and Jordan while they were being fitted for their suits. "Is this going to be a limousine thing or just a usual car thing?"

            "Limos are more for prom," Mike said. "I say we just go with the cars."

            "Um," Jordan said as he rose his rand mimicking having a question in school.

            "Stop that," the tailor said to Jordan as he moved Jordan's hand back down.

            "Sorry," Jordan said to the tailor. He turned back to his friends. "I don't exactly have a car that I can drive."

            "No problem," Aaron said. "You and I can go in the Jeep and Mike and Holly can go in Mike's car."

            "Works for me," Mike said as he turned so the tailor can have better access to take more measurements.

            "So Mike," Aaron said, trying to pass off his inquisition as just trying to pass the time while he was fitted for his suit, "Jordan and I were talking and we were wondering a few things."

            "Such as?" Mike asked.

            "Well," Aaron said, "We noticed a few similarities between your date and your ex-girlfriend and we were wondering if this was some kind of trend."

            "Similarities?" Mike asked.

            "Well," Aaron thought of a way to phrase what he wanted to say. "They both have similar extra curricular activities."

            "Oh," Mike said. "I see. Well, Colleen's extra curricular activities aren't exactly what got me interested in her."

            "I think what Aaron was trying to get down to Mike," Jordan said to his friend, "Is that we were wondering if what you initiated here is intended to be along the same lines as what you initiated last time with Colleen."

            "Isn't anything left confidential in the Scooby Gang?" Mike asked.

            "Yeah," Jordan said. "Specifically anything that Aaron does in his free time."

            "Is this going to be allowed to be one of those things that is kept confidential?" Mike asked.

            "If you want," Aaron said. "But as friends, can you just tell us what's going on?"

            "I'll tell you this," Mike said. "You'll know everything by Friday night."

*****

            In the back of Holly's mind, she found it extremely funny that she was more nervous going to a dance then she was in any fight she had ever been in with any demon. In the rest of Holly's mind, there was no room for anything except for complete panic. She stood in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom, staring deep into her reflection. Holly wished that Colleen or Dawn was there to assure her that she looked good. Her hair was perfect, her dress looked incredible on her, and everything matched. But still, in the back of Holly's mind, she was worried that there was something that was out of place on her body.

            "Holly," Holly's mother said as she opened her door. "Are you just about-" Holly's mom stopped in stunned silence as she looked at her daughter. "Holly!" Holly's mom said with shock.

            "What?" Holly said panicked as she looked over her body trying to see what was wrong. "What didn't I do?"

            "No it's not that," Holly's mother said. "It's just that you look beautiful."

            Holly stopped panicking for a moment and looked at her mom with a smile. "Thank you," Holly said. She knew that they had to get out of the house soon.

            "Holly," Holly's mother said as she sat down on the end of Holly's bed. "We need to talk.

            "Damnit," Holly thought. She had come so close to avoiding the talk that she knew her mother was going to try to have with her. "Mom," Holly said out loud. "We're going to be late."

            "Holly I need to say this," Holly's mom said. She looked serious. "I know that you and Mike have a lot of history and I know that Mike knows about your circumstances."

            "Mom," Holly said. She really didn't want to hear this.

            "Holly listen to me," Holly's mom almost snapped. Holly was a little shock and her mother composed herself. "I'm sorry Holly, I just want you to know that you need to be careful."

            "I know I do Mom," Holly assured her mom. "I've known for all my life. Tonight isn't going to be any different."

            "But Holly," Holly's mother said. "This is your first date." Holly's mom looked like she was going to start talking again but Holly cut her short.

            "No way Mom," Holly said. "You've reached your quota. You only get one _The Talk a night."_

            "I love you Holly," Holly's mother told her. "I don't know if you really understand that I really do love you and I want you to be safe and happy."

            "I know you do Mom," Holly told her. "I appreciate everything that you've done and I love you to. And I am. Safe and happy I mean. But right now we have to go. We're going to be late."

*****

            In the two years that the Scooby Gang had been friends with each other there was never really an occasion that would require all of their parents to get together. The Homecoming dance was going to be the first real situation in which the parents got to interact. No one was really looking forward to it.

            Everyone agreed that group pictures would be taken at Colleen's house. The six of them were standing in a line in front of the bushes of Colleen's house. Mr. Danvers, Colleen's dad, was at one end of the parents taking pictures. Ed Danvers had played basketball in college and looked the part. Despite being almost forty, he looked like he was still in pretty good shape. Like Colleen, he was also tall with dark hair. He wasn't an extremely social person. He had a few close friends, but when his wife left he didn't exactly start dating again. He had been a little nervous about all the other parents being there but he was doing a good job of being a host.

            Next to him were the O'Malley's. Aaron's mom, Ellen, was also busy taking pictures of her son. Ellen was a little taller then the average woman and unlike her son she had long blonde hair. Her husband, Jonas, was busy talking on his cell phone to a business client. Aaron looked identical to Jonas when he was younger. Their features were almost identical. When Aaron looked at old photographs of his dad it was like looking at a picture of himself. Ellen was happy to be able to be there for Aaron's dance. It upset her that she didn't get to spend much time with her son. Ellen was Jonas's secretary and had been before they were even married so whenever he left on business she went with him. Aaron didn't like to think that his mom has been his dad's secretary before they even dated because he really didn't want to know how they got together.

            Jordan's parents were very nice people. The Scooby Gang had only met them a few times but they liked them a lot. Jordan's dad was very tall and was a really funny guy. Jordan's shared a lot of the same features as Jordan. She was extremely good looking and Jordan told them that she had been an actress when she was younger. The Clarkes were very outgoing people who were very good at holding conversations.

            Xander and Anya were also there. Xander felt a little awkward in the situation because he was only six years older than the Scooby Gang and he was about twenty years younger than the other parents. Still, Xander tried his best to play the part of the parent. Anya was too busy being an overly excited parent. She made Dawn turn this way and that to make sure that she got all the pictures from all the angles that she wanted to get. Dawn was getting very annoyed.

            The last two parents, Tracy Nils and Mitch Dalton, didn't really talk to each other. They made sure to stay on opposite sides of the group and only said a few pleasantries when they saw each other. They had once dated and the relationship didn't exactly end in a good way.

            "Okay," Mike said, letting go of Holly's waist and stepping towards his car. "I think that we have enough pictures."

            "No we don't," Anya said. "I still have three more rolls of film."

            "Save them for another day Anya," Xander told her. "I think the nine you have are good enough."

*****

            There's something about the mystique of a school dance that lets the students at the dance see past its lameness and see something that escapes anyone who isn't a teenager. There is something about a school dance that inspires an almost indescribable feeling in a High School Junior. The mix of the anxiety and the anticipation, excitement over the possibilities you keep in the back of your mind and don't want to push them forward because you are afraid that you might jinx them. For once, the Scooby Gang was getting a normal night.

            Aaron held Dawn as close to his body as was possible. She rested her head on his shoulder and they moved with the slow melody that seemed to pulse through their bodies. Aaron leaned his face down towards Dawn's head. He inhaled her scent deeply and smiled. Dawn looked up to him and shared his expression.

            "This is nice," she said to him.

            "Very nice," Aaron agreed. They looked deep into each other's eyes for a moment. It was almost as if each of them could see into the other's soul. Aaron leaned into Dawn and kissed her very lovingly.

            "I'm in love with you," Dawn told Aaron as leaned into his shoulder again.

            Aaron paused for a moment and stared into space. "I want to say something that won't sound lame or trite," Aaron explained to Dawn. "I mean, I want to really convey what I'm feeling right now and that's hard to do with a word that I've also used to describe my feelings towards the apple crisp that they serve in the cafeteria." Although Aaron couldn't see her face, he knew that Dawn was smiling. "But I guess I'm just going to have to say it. I'm in love with you too. I'll always love you."

            "Aw," Colleen said, actually impressed with how sweet Aaron could be. Aaron turned a bright shade of red.

            "Oh look what you did," Jordan said as he continued to dance with Colleen. "You embarrassed him. Aaron tried to think of an insult or sarcastic remark but he couldn't think of one. Dawn smiled at her boyfriend and got him an out by kissing him.

            "Come on Jordan," Colleen said as they began to move away while still dancing, "Maybe we should dance back to where we came from."

            Colleen and Jordan moved farther away from Dawn and Aaron to give them more privacy. Although they were slow dancing, they were doing it only as friends.

            "So are you having fun?" Jordan asked Colleen.

            "Actually," Colleen said, "I'm having a blast. It almost seems weird that this seems so odd to me now, you know? Like something like a dance could be what isn't normal in my life and what is normal in my life is so bizarre that sometimes I even have trouble believing it."

            "It's a nice change of pace," Jordan said to Colleen.

            "Eben has no idea what he is missing," Colleen told Jordan. Jordan noticed that slight sadness in Colleen's voice and was also able to sense on the longing that she felt.

            "I wouldn't be so sure about that," Jordan said as he pointed across the gym. Colleen looked where he was pointing and to her absolute astonishment, she saw Eben, in a suit, walking towards her. He was actually smiling. "I think I'm going to go sit down for a little bit," Jordan told Colleen with a smile.

            Elsewhere on the dance floor Mike and Holly were also slow dancing. Although they weren't as tightly embraced as Aaron and Dawn, they weren't exactly as far apart as a middle school dance.

            "I feel the need to say this, because I think that I know you fairly well," Mike told Holly. "And I am pretty sure that you have no idea how amazing you look right now." Holly blushed but she didn't respond. "I'm also going to make sure that you realize that when you walked in here you definitely made Kirsty think that she knew the reason why I asked you here."

            Holly smiled thinking that maybe the girls who had made fun of her all of her life were jealous not only of who was taking her to the dance but also of Holly's appearance. When Holly was younger and picked on in school her teachers used to tell her it was because that other kids were jealous of her. Until now, Holly had never thought that that scenario was possible.

            "But I think you need to realize that what Kirsty thinks she knows isn't right," Mike continued. "Although you are incredibly attractive, that's not the reason that I asked you to the dance. The reason isn't even that you're one of my closest friends, if not my closest friend. The truth is that I guess I really don't even know the answer. But I'll tell you what I do know. I know that whatever it is I feel, it is something that goes beyond friendship, and I really want to find out what it is."

            Holly looked at Mike. She tried to speak, but words couldn't really be formed. She started to panic. Although she knew exactly what her feelings for Mike were, she couldn't even begin to fathom how to convey them. Holly had to get away. She turned and ran to the bathroom.

            "Holly wait," Mike said as he went after her. Colleen spotted them as she moved towards Eben. She looked back as Holly ran into the girls' restroom. She quickly looked over to Eben and then back to Holly with a troubled expression on her face. Dawn also noticed the commission going on with Holly and flashed Colleen a look that let her know that she would take care of it. Colleen gave her an extremely grateful look and mouthed a thank you as Dawn ran off towards Holly, leaving Aaron walking over to where Jordan was leaning against the wall of the gymnasium.

            "What was that about?" Eben asked as he looked towards the girls' bathroom.

            "Forget about that," Colleen said. "What is this about?"

            "What?" Eben asked with an innocent smile.

            "Well," Colleen began, "For one you're here instead of out in some cemetery somewhere. For two you are in a suit. Where did you get a suit?"

            "It was my dad's," Eben told her. "And I'm taking a break between sweeps. The dance was just on my way to the next cemetery."

            "I see," Colleen said with a small grin, "So why did you decide to stop."

            "I was hoping," Eben said, "I mean, if your date doesn't mind, if you would like to dance with me?"

            "Eben," Colleen said, this time with an all out grin. "Are you jealous?"

            "No," Eben said, "Well I mean, not exactly. I mean, I guess-"

            "Just dance with me," Colleen told Eben as she put her arms around his neck. He moved his arms to her waist.

            "This doesn't mean that I anything has changed," Eben told Colleen. "People like you and me have more important things in our lives."

            "Yes we do," Colleen told him. "But all those things will still be there when this dance is over."

*****

            Dawn looked through the bath room. Surprisingly, it was deserted. It was still a little early in the evening for girls to be in their crying. She looked underneath the stalls and saw a set of feet in the handicapped one. She walked towards it and knocked on the door.

            "Holly?" Dawn asked. "Is that you?"

            "No," Holly said between sniffles.

            Dawn took a look around the bathroom again. There was still no one else in there. She closed her eyes and a swirl of green encircled her. She disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the closed door.

            "Liar," Dawn said as she looked at her friend.

            Holly sniffled some more and wiped her eyes on some toilet paper. "I can't believe this," Holly told Dawn. "I'm crying in the bathroom. I hate girls that cry in the bathroom."

            "Yeah I noticed that," Dawn said as she squatted to be eye to eye with Holly. "What's wrong?"

            "Mike said that he has feelings for him," Holly explained to Dawn between sniffles.

            "Oh wow," Dawn said. "Well, do you have any feelings for him?" Holly continued to cry but she nodded a yes. "Well that's great," Dawn said to Holly. "I mean, normally it would be, but I'm getting the feeling that it isn't in this scenario." Holly started crying harder. "Holly seriously, what's wrong?"

            "It's just," Holly tried to put what she was feeling into words. "What if this isn't real? What if this is just something I did with my demon powers? What if his feelings aren't real?"

            "Holly," Dawn spoke from her heart, "You have so much control over your powers, more control than I have on mine. I have no doubt that what Mike is feeling is real."

            "But every time I touch someone I can read all their weaknesses," Holly said. "I know how to manipulate people."

            "So," Dawn said. Holly looked at her confused. "Just because you have the power doesn't mean that you use it. And even if it happens on accident, then it's not your fault. Having a power and choosing not to use it takes more strength than anything else."

            "But what if," Holly looked down at her shoes. "What if I hurt him? What if I hurt him like my father hurt my mother?"

            "You know you won't," Dawn told Holly. "It's not who you are."

            "I don't want to hurt Mike," Holly told Dawn.

            "You won't," Dawn told Holly. "And Mike knew all about all of this when he told you how he felt, which means that he knows that's not who you are either." Holly smiled a little and looked up again. Dawn took her hand and helped her up. "Come on," Dawn said. "Let's get you cleaned up."

*****

            "When we came in we had dates, right?" Aaron asked as he, Mike, and Jordan stood outside the girls' restroom. "I mean, I wasn't imagining that was I?" Aaron looked over to Colleen dancing with Eben. "Figures, Colleen still gets to dance."

            No one acknowledged Aaron's comment. Jordan looked over at Mike. Mike hadn't taken his eyes off of the restroom door since Holly had gone in. Jordan could sense his distress, not that it took psychic abilities to see it.

            "What happened?" Jordan asked Mike.

            Mike paused before he responded. "I told Holly how I felt about her."

            Aaron's face reflected his shock and he turned his attention towards Mike and Jordan's conversation.

            "Oh," was all Jordan had to say.

            "Yeah," Mike said. "I guess this isn't really a good sign."

            Jordan bit his tongue. He knew exactly how Holly felt about Mike and had known longer than anyone else. He thought about telling Mike but knew that it wasn't his place.

            About ten minutes after Dawn and Holly had gone into the bathroom they were back out again.

            "Hey," Mike said to Holly.

            "Hey," Holly said back to Mike, first avoiding his look and then returning it.

            "Hey," Aaron said, with a very serious tone of voice. Everyone looked at him and he pointed across the gym. Coming in from the doors of the gym were Cortez and at least a dozen other vampires.

            "You have got to be kidding me," Dawn said.

            "We need to get everyone out of here," Mike said. "We need a distraction or something."

            Everyone looked around for something as the first few students noticed the vampires. Jordan spotted the fire extinguisher thirty feet from him. With a slight squint he pulled the alarm with his mind. The gym erupted in chaos as sirens went off and students hurried to every exit.

            "Dawn," Holly said. "Get us outside."

            "I'll give Colleen a heads up," Aaron said as he gave Dawn's hand a quick squeeze before he made his way through the mass hysteria towards Colleen. "It's a good thing we practice so everyone remains calm during these situations," Aaron said sarcastically to himself as his friends disappeared in a green light.

            As Aaron reached Colleen she was already aware that there was something happening beyond just a fire. Her Slayer Sense was like vampdar.

            "What's going on?" Colleen asked.

            "We have a Cortez situation," Aaron told her. He pointed to where Cortez was making his way through the panicked students.

            "Great," Colleen said. "It's a good thing that my main priority in a dress is combat maneuverability. I just need to get a stake from my purse."

            "Got you covered," Aaron said as he pulled two stakes out of his inside coat pocket. Colleen took one and he offered the other one to Eben.

            "No thanks," Eben said as he took his own stake out. "I have my own."

            "You two try to take out as many as the other vampires as you can," Colleen told the boys. "I'll go after Cortez."

            "The others are outside taking care of the perimeter," Aaron told Colleen.

            Colleen nodded. "Okay, let's do this as quickly as possible. I definitely don't want to even try to explain this to the rest of the school."

            Colleen split off from Eben and Aaron as she spotted Cortez. She timed her attack so she hit Cortez right as he walked past the door for the locker room and she managed to get him inside.

            "Hello," Colleen said as she kicked Cortez in the face. "We haven't met. I'm the Slayer." She punched Cortez in the side of the head and then again in the stomach before she swept his feet out from under him with her legs.

            However, right as Cortez hit the ground he was right back up again. "The Slayer?" Cortez asked Colleen. "And the Living Vampire and the Slayer shall have known each other." Cortez quoted from an unknown source. Cortez attacked Colleen and managed to hit her in the face.

            "I don't know what you're talking about," Colleen lied as she dodged one of Cortez's blow, grabbed the back of his knee, and managed to kick him in the face. "I think you need to check your source on that."

            "It's a very reliable prophecy," Cortez said as he caught Colleen's leg as she tried to roundhouse him. He used her momentum to swing her and then send her crashing her into the wall. "And in case you were wonder, 'know' is 'know' in the Biblical sense, if you know what I mean."

            Cortez approached Colleen but he had to narrowly avoid a burst of flame. Shaken his arm to put the flame out, he looked at his attacker and recognized him.

            "Looks like you're about to rejoin the rest of your friends," Eben told Cortez. "Where is it that you vampires go after you are dusted?" Eben helped Colleen to her feet.

            Cortez looked through the window on the door and couldn't see any vampires in the gym. He turned his back for a moment but then quickly spin kicked Colleen and Eben knocking them both down. Before they could get back up, Cortez had run off.

*****

            Eben walked up to where the Scoobies were sitting at a picnic table outside of the school. The police and fire trucks were at the scene. According to the student body, they had been attack by a gang on PCP.

            "Any luck?" Colleen asked Eben as he sat down at the table.

            Eben shook his head. "No sign of him anywhere."

            "I wish we knew what he was looking for," Dawn said. "I mean, what is a Living Vampire anyway?" The Scoobies had decided to cover for Mike until they were sure that they could trust Eben.

            Eben thought abut saying something, but then thought better of it. "Yeah," was all he said. He looked to Colleen, and without saying a word he vanished in a blurry cloud of mystic smoke.

            "I hate it when he does that," Aaron said with Dawn sitting on his lap.

            "I can't believe he showed up," Jordan said.

            Colleen nodded in agreement. "I don't get him."

*****

            "Well that was the most interesting dance I've ever been to," Mike said as he and Holly walked towards his car.

            "Yeah," Holly agreed. "Of course, it was also the first dance I've ever been to."

            "It was also the best dance I've ever been to," Mike told Holly. "Well, I mean before the vampire attack."

            Holly smiled. "Mike, I'm sorry I freaked earlier."

            "It's okay," Mike told Holly. "It's just that I want you to feel comfortable with me."

            "I do feel comfortable with you," Holly told him. "I just don't want to hurt you."

            "Holly," Mike said. "No offense, but I think I could take you."

            "Not like that," Holly said. "Mike, I'm a Sellar demon. It's in my nature to hurt people who…" Holly couldn't finish her sentence.

            "You're only half demon," Mike told her. "And hello? I'm not exactly the poster boy for human either."

            "It's different for you," Holly said.

            "How," Mike said. "Because it's not in my nature to hurt people?"

            "But you're not a demon," Holly pointed out.

            "And neither are you," Mike told Holly. He stopped and looked Holly in the eye. "Holly, we're special. We're both one of a kind. And what's more, we both have souls. I know that you would never hurt me. Ever."

            Holly looked down at her hands and saw that Mike had them in his own. It took her a while before she could look into Mike's eyes again. "Where do we go from here?" Holly asked him.

            "How about here," Mike said as he leaned in and gave Holly her first kiss.

*****

Author's Note: Wow, first of all, I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to write. I didn't have a lot of free time lately. On top of that, this chapter was just so long. I probably should have just split it up into two episodes, but oh well, I have a lot of ground to cover this season. Anyway, it's time for the more important news. I have launched my own website containing all of my stories! So go check out my site (The URL is in my author profile. Just click on my name at the top of this chapter.) and make sure that you still review on here! Seriously, review, it will make me feel better because I'm sick right now. I'm also dying to know what you thought of this chapter. Thanks for reading, and expect an update a lot sooner then it took to do this last one.


	4. Odd One Out

Disclaimer:        Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.

Colleen:            Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth.

Jordan:             Psychic chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions.

Holly:               The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon.

Mike:               Something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire.

Dawn:              The ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form.

Aaron:              Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, this teenager has developed an impressive amount of power.

*****

            Jordan visually scanned the Bronze in vain. There was no clock hanging on any wall or at least none of the walls that Jordan could see. Having no other option, he decided to count down from ten very slowly in his head. Crossing his fingers, he looked back across the table.

            "Okay," Jordan said, "That's it. I can't take this anymore. You two have been making out for seriously like two minutes now. And normally, I would have no problem with this under typical circumstances, but when the only conversation I'm getting is listening to you two suck face, well, forgive me if I'm a little perturbed."

            Dawn and Aaron continued to kiss for a few more seconds before they finally broke apart. "I'm sorry," Aaron said to Jordan, "Were you saying something?"

            Dawn laughed from her position on Aaron's lap and kissed him one last time before she went back to her own chair, ignoring Aaron's hurt expression.

            "Oh shut up," Dawn said to Aaron's pouty face, "You know you'll get more later on."

            "And we have just entered the 'too much information' zone," Jordan said with an exasperated laugh.

            "Okay, okay," Aaron said with a bemused smile, "We should get back to the objective at hand. This is supposed to be talk time tonight."

            "It seems like we haven't really been living up the whole big group thing lately," Dawn pointed out. "Although it's not exactly like we've been spending less time together."

            "Everything has just been so couplefied lately," Jordan said. "I mean you two are might as well just have one pair of lips and now Mike and Holly seemed to be going down that road too. On top of all that Colleen is hot for Eben."

            "What about you?" Aaron asked Jordan. "How was your hand been treating you?" Dawn, not liking Aaron's joke, hit Aaron hard in his ribs. Aaron wondered if maybe he was being a little cruel but Jordan's laugh reassured him.

            "You're not far from the truth," Jordan said. He noticed Dawn's horrified look. "No, not about that. But yeah, lately I've felt like the seventh wheel." Jordan looked at the way that Aaron's hand kept creeping up Dawn's leg and the way that Dawn playfully pushed his hand back, pretending to be annoyed but still smiling. Jordan sighed. "And with that I think I'm going to get something to drink."

            Jordan stood up and excused himself from the table. The Bronze was unusually crowded for a weekday night. A local band that Jordan had never heard of was playing and seemed to have really pulled in a crowd. Although Jordan wasn't really into the style of music they were playing, he had to admit that they were catchy.

            "Can I have a Pepsi please?" Jordan asked the busy bartender. He wasn't sure if he had heard him or not and soon he was too far away to even get his attention. Jordan sighed and took a seat at the bar.

            "Jordan, right?" Jordan turned towards the unfamiliar voice beside him and hoped that his eyes hadn't bulged out of his head. Sitting next to him at the bar was one of the most attractive girls he had ever seen in his life.

            "Yes," Jordan tried his hardest not to sound. "I am the one who is called Jordan." He failed miserably.

            The girl gave a smile that seemed to show that she thought that Jordan's comment was funny. She reached out with her hand to shake his. "I thought that was your name. I've seen you around school."

            "Oh," Jordan said as he shook her hand. "You go to Sunnydale?"

            "Yeah," the girl said. "I'm a freshman. You're a junior right?"

            "Yeah," Jordan said. He had absolutely no idea what to say next.

            The girl laughed a little. "I'm Danica by the way."

            "Wow," Jordan said as he processed that name, seeing if had ever heard anything about her before. "That's a unique name."

            Danica smiled back at Jordan.

*****

            Mike jumped over the vampire that Holly launched in his direction. Holly had meant to collide the vampire with the wall of a tomb but Mike had gotten in the way. Luckily, Mike jumped just in time.

            "Sorry," Holly said as she rushed at the vampire, hitting him several times in the face.

            "Not a problem," Mike said as he kicked a female vampire's feet out from under her. He was on her in a second with a stake in hand and turned her into dust. Holly finished her vampire off quickly and sunk her stake deep into its chest.

            "So where were we?" Mike asked as he walked over towards Holly. She smiled as he leaned into her, kissing her on the lips. They leaned back against the wall of the tomb, focusing on each other instead of the preternatural for once.

            "Get a room," Colleen said as she snuck up behind. Colleen found herself a little torn about Holly and Mike's relationship. She was happy that her friends were together, but actually seeing them together was a lot different then thinking about it on paper. Pretty soon she was going to need someone of her own before she got really jealous.

            "Sorry," Holly said, blushing a little at being caught with Mike.

            Colleen laughed. "Don't worry about it," she said, then changed the subject. "So how many vampires did you guys dust tonight?"

            Mike sighed. "Nine," he admitted. "The unsubstantiated influx of vampires seems to not be ending any time soon. How many did you get?"

            "Six," Colleen told him. "So that's fifteen between us. Plus however many Sunnydale's newest vampire hunter chalked up tonight."

            "No sign of Eben?" Holly asked Colleen.

            "Nope," Colleen told her. "We know that he patrols at night. You would think that we would run into each other every so often."

            The three began to move towards the exit of the cemetery, Holly and Mike holding hands.

            "So do we have any idea why all these vampires are suddenly coming to Sunnydale?" Holly asked. "Or why they are all after Mike?"

            "Nope," Colleen confessed. "It's going to be a big relief when we find out though."

            "You're telling me," Mike said with a very bittersweet sarcasm.

*****

            "So Jordan, who are you looking for?" Colleen asked the psychic as the whole Scooby Gang with the exception of Mike were walking to Aaron's Jeep. Mike once again had basketball conditioning. Jordan was scanning the crowd trying to spot Danica.

            "It wouldn't happen to be the hottie that we saw you chatting it up with for about an hour last night would it?" Dawn asked Jordan. Jordan blushed bright red. "It is!" Dawn exclaimed with excitement.

            "There's no chance that we're going to be able to drop this is there?" Jordan asked the others.

            "None at all," Aaron confirmed for him.

            "So who is it?" Holly asked Jordan.

            "Yeah Jordan spill," Colleen told him. "Did you get her number?"

            "I feel like we're about to start singing that song from Grease," Jordan tried to joke his way out of having this conversation. It didn't work. Jordan sighed. "Her name's Danica."

            "Danica?" Holly asked. "Are you sure she goes here? I never heard of her before."

            "She's a freshman," Jordan explained.

            "Uh oh," Aaron said with a wide grin on his face, "Jordan is going after the jailbait."

            "I'm not going to even dignify that with a response," Jordan told Aaron as he unlocked the doors to his car.

            "So do you see her anywhere?" Dawn asked Jordan as they piled into the SUV. "You could offer her a ride home and then 'accidentally' forget that the car is already full and she would be forced to sit on your lap."

            "I should have just stuck with clairvoyance," Jordan said as he shook his head and shut the car door. "But no, I had to move past my psychic powers and actually look around."

*****

            In keeping with his own style, Jack Coban was the last person in the computer lab. Although it was pretty common knowledge that Jack was pretty much a computer geek he still didn't like to be seen doing his thing in public. He always waited at least fifteen minutes for most of the students at Sunnydale High to leave the building before he entered the lab. Sure, computer geeks were more socially acceptable in this day and age, what with girls realizing that they could potentially be worth a million dollars, but it still wasn't a badge that Jack wanted to wear with pride.

            Jack was just finishing up his latest project for AP Computer Science. Normally this is the kind of thing that Jack would have done at home, but lately he found that it was hard to concentrate at home. Of course, in Jack's mind he didn't have a home anymore. His home was sold to strangers which was almost funny because he was living with strangers himself. Jack sighed as he took his disk from the computer and logged off.

            "Ah!" Jack yelled as he turned around to be face to face with someone he didn't know was standing behind him. "I mean," Jack tried to cover for yelling, "Hello."

            "Sorry," Eben apologized. He pointed towards his feet. "Quiet shoes."

            "I see," Jack said. There was an awkward silence.

            "Sorry," Eben apologized again. He really needed to learn a lot more about interacting with peers on a daily basis. "I'm Eben. Your Jack Coban right? Mr. Ballis said that I should talk to you if I wanted to get caught up in Computer Science."

            "Oh," Jack said. "What do you need help with?"

            "Pretty much everything," Eben said with a smile. "I'm not good with computers."

            "Do you have a free period or anything?" Jack asked Eben. "Or do you have anything after school?"

            "I have everything free after school," Eben said. "I'm still pretty new here and I don't really know anybody."

            It didn't happen much, but Jack felt a little bad that Eben didn't know anyone. "Well what are you doing now?" Jack asked Eben. "Because I was about to head to a home that I'm not really comfortable in yet and it would be nicer to have someone to talk to instead of my step dad."

            "New step dad?" Eben asked. "That's rough." Eben pretended to speak from experience.

            "Yeah," Jack said as they walked towards the door of the lab. "New family, new dad, and a new brother. It's everything that I never wanted."

            "New brother?" Eben asked Jack nonchalantly.

            "Yeah, Mike Dalton," Jack said. "The basketball player."

            "Really," Eben said, pretending to be finding out something that he didn't already know.

*****

            Jordan waved towards his friends as they pulled out of his driveway after they had dropped him off. He had a good three hour block of television time to look forward too.

            "Hey," Jordan was surprised by Danica who stepped over from the side of his house. A tinge went up Jordan's spine. It's very hard to surprise a psychic.

            "Hey," Jordan said as he looked at Danica curiously. "Don't take this the wrong way, but what are you doing here?"

            Danica smiled at him. "Well, I ditched school today. And now I'm just waking up and I'm bored so I figured I would come see what my newest friend was doing."

            Jordan considered her words for a moment. He very badly wanted to read her mind to know what she was thinking but he knew that it would have been wrong. How do normal people figure out if a girl likes them or if they just want to be friends?

            "What did you have in mind?" Jordan asked with a playful smile.

*****

            "I can't believe you're choosing this over a night with your boyfriend," Dawn teased Holly from the backseat of Colleen's car.

            "And I couldn't say the same about you?" Holly asked Dawn.

            Dawn rolled her eyes. "No, believe me I love Aaron, but you guys are friends with him. Even I need a break from him every now and then."

            Colleen and Holly both laughed. "We have had this coming for a long time," Colleen said while she drove. "We have been seriously neglecting our girl time."

            "Definitely," Dawn said. "So, what's on the agenda?"

            "Well first we need to go to my house so I can check in with my mom," Holly told Dawn. "Then we need to stay there for a while because I need to stop by Mike's really fast after he gets done with practice, and then the night is all ours."

            "See," Dawn explained to Holly, "The typical girls' night out is spent independently from the boyfriend."

            "Well," Colleen said to Dawn, "Seeing as how a large part of our night is going to involve slaying vampires, I don't think that we need to criticize Holly's lack of a typical plan."

*****

            Aaron hadn't spent much time in his house before he realized that there was absolutely nothing to eat. Dipping into the money his parents always left when they were out of town, Aaron grabbed his keys and headed for his car. Once he got into his car, he spotted Jordan's backpack in the backseat.

            "Figures," Aaron said to himself as he started the engine. "As soon as Jordan meets a girl there just isn't room for anything else in his brain."

            Aaron backed out of his drive and got onto the rode. "Well," he said to absolutely no one, "If I'm bored enough to start talking to myself then maybe it's a sign that I need to go spend some quality time with Jordan."

*****

            "So who would you say is your favorite band?" Danica asked Jordan while they walked through the park eating ice-cream cones.

            "I guess I would have to say The Smiths," Jordan told her. "How about you?"

            "The Beatles," Danica told him. "Without a doubt The Beatles."

            "I like a lot of their stuff," Jordan told her. "But then again who doesn't?"

            Danica smiled at him. "So where did you live before coming to Sunnydale?"

            "Right outside of Cleveland, Ohio," Jordan told her. "How long have you lived in Sunnydale?"

            "For a while," Danica told him. "My family moves around a lot though."

            "This was my only move," Jordan told her.

            "So what do you think of Sunnydale?" Danica asked him.

            "It's a lot less boring then my old town," Jordan told her. It was one of the biggest understatements he had ever heard in his life.

            "Yeah," Danica agreed. "There is a ton of interesting stuff." Danica's eyes flew open as she suddenly remembered something. "Oh! Have you ever seen the caves over on the other side of the park?"

            "Nope," Jordan told her.

            Danica smiled and grabbed Jordan's hand. "You have got to see these. They are so cool." Danica lead Jordan away and he really didn't have any complaints.

*****

            Everyone knew that if you worked with anything even remotely tied to the occult in Sunnydale that you were asking for trouble. Take The Pen and Quill for example. It was a book store in Sunnydale that was known for its many books detailing accounts of magick and things of that nature. The owner, Mr. Allen Dockson, worked in the store from when he graduated High School to the day he died.

            Mr. Dockson's dead body lay on the ground of his store. Cassio sat at a table in the back of the store flipping through a pile of books. From the look on his face he wasn't happy.

            "Looks like this was another dead end," Cassio said with a sigh. He looked over at the body of the dead shop owner. "I guess it wasn't a total loss. I got a meal out of it."

            Cassio stood up to leave when he noticed something in one of the books. He looked closer at a passage and flipped through to the next couple of pages. Curious, Cassio took the book with him as he retreated into the basement of the store and its sewer access. Maybe this Oracle would be able to help Cassio find out how to remove the spell form the Living Vampire.

*****

            Aaron pulled into Jordan's driveway and parked his car. The sun was starting to set but there wasn't a single light on inside of Jordan's house. Aaron had a strange feeling in his stomach as he walked towards the house. When he stepped onto the porch though, he was suddenly able to place his feeling.

            Aaron wasn't the most powerful warlock in Sunnydale. He was actually far from it. He hadn't even been practicing for three years yet. However, like everything else that Aaron put his mind too, Aaron was a quick learner. And although his senses weren't that fined tuned yet, Aaron could definitely feel the hairs on the back of his neck going up.

            "Head rush," Aaron said to himself as he sat down on Jordan's porch swing. He put his head back and tried to focus. There was definitely something supernatural going on but he had no clue what it was. It took a while before Aaron realized that whatever was playing with his senses seemed to be leaving a trail.

            Aaron looked down at his cell phone and then in the direction of the energy trail. Aaron knew that he should probably call someone for help. He knew that it was stupid to put himself in a potentially dangerous situation without at least trying to find some back up.

            Aaron walked over to Jordan's door and rang the doorbell. He waited a minute and then rang it again. No one came to the door. He shrugged and then began to walk in the direction of the trail.

            "Not the first dumb thing I ever did," Aaron said to himself as he tried to hone his senses, "And I'd just be kidding myself if I said that it was going to be my last."

*****

            "Wow," Jordan said as he took in the site of the cave system. "This is incredible."

            "Isn't it?" Danica said, her voice filled with excitement too. "I love this place. It's just so magical."

            "Magical?" Jordan said, smiling at her choice of words. "Interesting adjective. I would have gone with ominous myself."

            "Can't you feel it?" Danica asked Jordan. "There is magic in here. Cults used to come here to perform rituals."

            "Are you a tour guide or something?" Jordan asked with a smile.

            Danica returned the smile and again took Jordan's hand. "Come check this out." She led Jordan through the dark caves to an area that seemed to be some kind of dark church with everything carved out of stone.

            "You weren't kidding when you said cults," Jordan said as he ran his hand over the altar. "Do you think they did sacrifices here?" He asked with a smile.

            Danica joined him at his side and ran her hand over the cold stone as well. "That's a little morbid," Danica said to him with a smile. His hand continued to move across the stone until it was on top of hers. Gripping her hand, he turned towards Danica and looked down into her blue eyes. Soon, Jordan felt his hands behind her neck and felt her lips pressed against his own. It was the first kiss that Jordan had in a long time. It was almost unreal, and for some reason Jordan felt himself getting dizzy.

            Suddenly, Jordan broke the kiss. He stumbled away from Danica, very disoriented. With a puzzled look on his face, he looked at Danica, trying to understand the smile on her face while also making a feeble effort to read her mind. He didn't get the chance though, because before he knew it he was on the floor unconscious.

            Danica smiled and walked towards the back of the ritual area. She came back towards Jordan with a dagger in her right hand. With her other hand she performed a waving motion and Jordan was lifted into the air and set on the altar.

            "I'm sorry Jordan," Danica said as she approached him. "But I'm not interested in your body. It's your mind that I'm after."

*****

            "Okay," Dawn prepped Colleen and Holly as they walked from Colleen's car towards Mike's house. "This is going to be really quick. In and out."

            "Got it," Holly said as they got to the front porch and rang the door bell.

            "It might even be quicker than we thought," Holly said as she pointed towards Mike who was pulling into the driveway. He parked his car and walked towards the girls on his porch.

            "I thought this was girl's night out?" Mike asked Holly after he kissed her hello.

            "It is," Holly told him, "But I left my other shoes in your room the other night and I need to grab them."

            Mike smiled at her. "I see," he said with an amused voice, "This is all just a ploy to get my hopes up that I wouldn't be incredibly bored tonight."

            Holly laughed and the four of them turned to walk into the house when they saw the last thing they ever expected to see. As the four of them were about to walk in, Jack and Eben were walking out, laughing with each other about over some unheard joke.

            "Oh," Jack said, surprised by the group of people in front of him. "What's up Mike?" Mike was too stunned to answer and Jack wasn't really all that interested anyway. Jack and Eben walked past the group and headed towards Jack's car.

            "Colleen. Mike," Eben said a simply greeting and left them with a smile as he walked towards Jack's car. The four Scoobies could do nothing but watch and try not to look shocked.

            "Okay," Colleen said after the two were gone. "What was _that about?"_

*****

            Not surprisingly, the longer Aaron followed the magickal energies the less calm he got. He knew that he should have gotten someone to come with him, preferably someone with super strength. However, the closer he got to the source of the power, the more he felt the need to make sure that Jordan was all right. The closer he got to the caves at the park though, the less he thought that Jordan was okay.

            "Although," Aaron said to himself, "Colleen certainly had some good times in caves."

            Aaron walked through the dark caves. Muttering a single word in Latin, a gentle glow illuminated Aaron's hand. He held his hand out in front of him like a torch to see what was happening. Fortunately, Aaron heard Danica speaking and was able to put out his light before she saw him. Ducking behind a stalagmite, he heard Jordan's voice as well.

            "Danica," Jordan said. He was just waking up. "What's going on? Let me go."

            Danica gave Jordan a smile while she continued to set up her ritual. "I'm sorry Jordan, but I can't do that." She stood over a podium, occasionally saying a phrase or two in a language that Aaron didn't recognize.

            "What are you doing?" Jordan asked Danica.

            "It's called the Ritual of Uratu," Danica explained to Jordan while she continued to anoint her dagger. "It's going to take the demon, and hopefully your visions, out of you and put them into me."

            "What!" Jordan said horrified. He struggled against the mystical bonds that held him in place. "You can't. Please, Danica, let me go."

            "Why?" Danica asked Jordan, looking up from her work for the first time. "Jordan, I wasn't faking my attraction towards you. This is your ticket out of the demon world. You get to go back to living your normal human life."

            "But I don't want a normal human life," Jordan explained to Danica. "This is my life. Danica, I've never been normal, and I've never had any desire to be normal. I have a purpose here. I have people that depend on me. You can't take this away from me."

            Danica looked hard at Jordan. She saw the desperation in his eyes and could almost feel his terror about losing his powers. She considered that for a moment. "Sorry Jordan," Danica said as she walked towards him, holding her dagger out. "But an open channel to The Powers That Be is just too good to pass up."

            "What are you?" Jordan asked her as she stood next to him.

            "I'm human," Danica told him. "Well, I was human. Doing magick for a few hundred years can tend to replace little parts of your humanity."

            Danica held her dagger over Jordan's head ready to plunge it into his gut when she was suddenly engulfed in a blue light. Slightly disoriented, Danica stumbled backwards a little, and Aaron was right there to hit her. Danica turned to fire a bolt of magickal energy at Aaron, but nothing escaped her fingertips. Aaron went to punch the smaller girl again, but this time she blocked his blow.

            "My powers," Danica said in confusion.

            "I think that's the least of your worries," Aaron said as he wrapped his hands around the dagger that was high above Danica's head. Physically, Aaron was bigger and stronger than Danica. However, Danica's energies were quickly returning. An insidious expression came over her face as she began to get the dagger closer and closer to Aaron. Aaron struggled but the dagger just got closer and closer to his head. Panicking, Aaron made a move to try to turn Danica's weight against her. However, in the struggle, Danica accidentally stuck her dagger in her own stomach.

            Aaron backed away as Danica's screams filled the cavern. A bright white light poured out of her. The light continued to envelope the cavern to the point of not being able to see anything. When Aaron opened his eyes again, Danica was gone. He turned to Jordan who was sitting up on the altar, no longer bound by magick.

            "Okay," Jordan asked Aaron, "How did you do that?"

            "I got lucky," Aaron admitted as he helped his friend up. "Sometimes when someone is doing ritual magick it's possible to temporarily separate them from their center." Jordan took a few steps while supporting himself on Aaron's shoulder but soon he was walking fine. "Good thing I was bored the other night at work and decided to do some reading. You're lucky I didn't have homework."

            Jordan walked over to where Danica had last been standing. There was nothing that even hinted that she even existed. Aaron joined him and neither of them said anything. "She wasn't a demon," Jordan said, finally breaking the silence.

            "Depends on your prospective," Aaron told him.

*****

            "So she was a demon," Colleen said as the others sat outside of their school on picnic benches the next day.

            "Not exactly," Jordan told her. "She was just kind of corrupted by the power."

            "Evil girlfriend," Dawn said with a little chuckle. "I have to tell Xander about this one."

            "Why?" Holly asked her.

            "Because Jordan is keeping up his tradition in the Scoobies," Dawn told her.

            "If it makes you feel any better," Aaron told Jordan, "From what I saw it seemed like she really cared about you."

            "I think she did," Jordan said. "Underneath everything." There was a moment of silence between the group. "Besides," Jordan eventually broke the quiet, "I only knew her for like a day."

            Everyone turned at that point to see Eben and Jack walking through the parking lot after school towards Eben's car.

            "Okay," Aaron said, completely confused. "What is going on there?"

            "Oh yeah," Mike said, "Our latest unsolved mystery."

            "Jack and Eben are all buddy-buddy now," Colleen told Aaron and Jordan.

            "You have got to be kidding me," Aaron said. "What could they possibly have in common?"

            "We're guessing a Living Vampire?" Holly explained.

            "Great," Jordan said. "No good can come of this."

*****

Author's Note: Big things coming in the next couple chapters. Review so I put my story at a higher priority than studying for my finals. I want to know what you guys thought of this chapter.


	5. Ashes to Ashes

Disclaimer:        Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.

Colleen:            Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth.

Jordan:             Psychic chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions.

Holly:               The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon.

Mike:               Something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire.

Dawn:              The ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form.

Aaron:              Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, this teenager has developed an impressive amount of power.

*****

            Holly was sleeping peacefully on top of Mike's bed. Her clothes were on and she wasn't even under the covers. She had just been incredibly tired after school but still wanted to go over to Mike's house. When she had decided to stay up late studying for her French test she hadn't considered what kind of consequences it would have on her afternoon.

            Mike smiled as he watched Holly sleep. He was lying next to hear idly playing with her long blonde hair. She looked so calm when she was sleeping. When she was sleeping, there was a small smile on her lips. Holly didn't smile a lot while she was awake. Although she didn't walk around looking like she was devastated, she just wasn't the kind of person that smiled in excess. Mike loved her smile though.

            Mike thought about waking Holly up, but he thought that it would be better if she got some rest. The Scooby Gang had been really busy lately. The army of vampires that seemed to roam the streets of Sunnydale every night had gone from curious to alarming. Everyone had hoped that the sudden increase would go away just as quickly as it happened, but it had been going on for months now. Something had to be done and soon. It takes a lot of humans to keep that many vampires sustained.

            Wanting to get something to drink, Mike got up off of his bed. He made sure to get up slowly so he didn't wake up Holly. Walking from his room to the steps he passed by Jack's room. He paused while he was passing his room. He heard not one but two voices coming from the other side of the door. Curious, Mike knocked on Jack's door before walking in. Jack looked over from his computer and gave Mike a smile. Sitting next to Jack was Eben.

            "Hey Mike," Jack greeted his soon to be step brother. "What's going on?"

            "Nothing much," Mike said, trying to not obviously give Eben an inspecting eye, "Just got a little bored in my room and decided to come see what you were up to."

            "I thought Holly was over?" Jack said, still looking at Mike who was now sitting at the foot of Jack's bed.

            "She fell asleep," Mike explained. "I didn't want to wake her up."

            "Tired her out," Jack said with a wicked smile. Mike tried to laugh off his comment but knew that he was blushing, despite him and Holly not really progressing to that point in their relationship yet.

            There was a silence in the room after Jack's comment. Jack looked to Eben and then back to Mike. "Oh yeah," Jack said. "Mike do you know Eben?"

            Mike nodded, looking Eben directly in the eye. "Yeah we met a few times."

            "What's up," Eben said, giving Mike a friendly greeting while never breaking the eye contact.

            Jack noticed the tension that seemed to exist between Mike and Eben but didn't really comment on it. Instead he tried to carry on a normal conversation. The conversation mostly consisted with Jack talking to Eben and Mike without Mike or Eben talking to each other. Eventually, Jack excused himself to use the restroom.

            "So," Eben said after Jack was out of hearing range. "What do you want?"

            "What do you mean what do I want?" Mike tried not to completely flip out. "This is my house. What the Hell are you doing here?"

            "I'm hanging out with my friend," Eben told Mike very matter-of-factly.

            "Do you think I'm stupid or something," Mike said, quickly loosing patience with Eben. "Let's review the facts. A new string of evil comes into Sunnydale and at the same time you conveniently show up and strike up a friendship with the one person at Sunnydale High School who lives with me while at the same time making no efforts to have any ties to the people you knew before you came here. Forgive me if I'm feeling a little paranoid."

            "You're not jealous or anything are you?" Eben gave Mike a small smile that made Mike want to punch Eben in the face more than he already did.

            "What is _that supposed to mean?" Mike demanded of Eben._

            "I wouldn't blame you," Eben continued. "I mean, first your girlfriend and then your step brother, I would feel threatened too."

            Mike snapped. Without even really thinking about what he was doing he took a swing at Eben. He should have connected hard with Eben's chin but all he hit was air. Eben teleported a few feet away to avoid the attack. Mike spun around and attempted to go after Eben again but Eben stopped him by levitating him a foot off the ground. Mike swung in vain but couldn't come close to hitting him.

            "Calm down," Eben said with sudden seriousness. He set Mike down just as Jack entered the room.

            "So do you guys want to play some X-Box or something…" Jack trailed off as he watched Mike storm past him and out of the room.

            Mike walked all the way back to his room and made it a point to slam his door behind him. The sound was so loud that Holly instantly sat up in bed. Mike looked over at her and felt like an ass for being inconsiderate enough to not remember that she was sleeping.

            "Sorry," Mike said. He was obviously still pissed off.

            "What's the matter?" Holly asked him.

            "Whatever is going on with these vampires coming after me," Mike stated, "I think Eben knows more than we do."

            "So what can we do about it?" Holly asked.

            "I don't know," Mike admitted, "But we're going to do something soon."

*****

            "I already tried," Colleen complained as the Scooby Gang sat in the lounge of the school before classes started. "He said no."

            "Yeah but he also said no about the dance," Jordan pointed out. "But he changed his mind about that."

            "He made it pretty clear that he wasn't interested in becoming a Scooby," Colleen responded.

            "I'm sorry," Holly interjected, "But that's such a stupid name."

            "It's worth a shot," Dawn told Colleen, ignoring Holly's comment. "It's not like we couldn't use him on our side."

            "He's up to something," Mike said point blank. "I think he knows what I am."

            "Keep in mind that he has absolutely no evidence to back that claim up," Aaron pointed out. Mike flashed Aaron a look of ingratitude for not helping him. "Hey, the kid creeps me out too. I'm just speaking the truth."

            "Mike does have a point though," Holly defended her boyfriend. "Why out of everyone at Sunnydale High School would Eben possibly want to befriend Jack? Especially after he gave us the distinct impression that he wanted nothing to do with anything like friends."

            "So what do you want me to do?" Colleen asked.

            "Why don't you just try to see if he does actually know about Mike?" Jordan asked Colleen. "Maybe he can shed some light on what's going on."

            Colleen sighed. "Okay," she said. "I'll try."

            Aaron rolled his eyes at her. "Don't even act like you don't want to talk to him."

*****

            Aaron had parked his car a full ten minutes without getting out of it. He sat in the driver's seat with Dawn right next to him in the passenger seat. Although they both had empty apartments waiting for them upstairs, they stayed in Aaron's car kissing passionately.

            "Mmm," Dawn said as she took her lips off of Aaron's.

            "I second that," Aaron said with a smile as he leaned back into Dawn. She backed away from him.

            "Let's go upstairs," she said. "This middle compartment is digging into my side."

            Aaron pretended to be annoyed. "Fine, if comfort is that important to you I guess we can get out of the car." Aaron smiled as they both got out of the car and walked up the steps from the parking garage into the building.

            "Let's go to my apartment," Dawn said as Aaron tried to stop at his floor. "Anya and Xander are both at work."

            "Do you have something against my place?" Aaron asked Dawn.

            Dawn laughed at him. "No," she told him, "It's jus that we're there all the time."

            "Can I help it if my parents are always out of town?" Aaron said to her while they walked towards her apartment.

            "Does that ever bother you?" Dawn asked while she unlocked the door. "That your parents are never there?"

            Aaron shrugged. "Not really," he told Dawn as he pulled back the hair that was covering her neck and kissed the exposed part of her shoulder. "Especially now that I have you to keep me company."

            Dawn laughed as she leaned back against the door while Aaron kissed his way up from her shoulder and then onto her lips. Suddenly, she didn't feel the door behind her to lean on and her and Aaron both crashed to the floor inside the apartment, landing in a very compromising position.

            Aaron pushed himself off of Dawn and looked up to see Xander holding the door open and Anya with someone he didn't know in the family room looking at him lay on top of his girlfriend.

            "Yeah um," Aaron said as he stood up, blushing a bright shade of red. He reached out towards Dawn and helped her up. "Give me a call later," he said to Dawn. He turned to Xander and Anya and gave them quick good byes before he was out the door.

            Dawn wasn't as lucky. She had to stay in the room and take what was coming to her. Reluctantly, she met her guardians in the eye and for the first time saw the other man in the room.

            "Giles," Dawn said with excitement as she ran over and gave the British man a hug.

            "Don't think that I'm going to help you get out of trouble," Giles said with a smile while he returned Dawn's hug.

            "Dawn," Xander said while he shut the door. "We need to talk."

*****

            Colleen paced nervously while she waited for Eben to get done at his locker. She still had yet to really get a chance to talk to him after Homecoming. She was slightly nervous which was making her worried. She had a fairly good idea what any relationship with Eben would be like if it were even possible and she wasn't really eager to try it. She hoped that her nervousness was for a completely unromantic reason.

            Colleen didn't have time to ponder her feelings much longer because before she knew it Eben was walking towards her down the hall. She tried to keep to the shadows and when Eben was right in front of her she grabbed him and pulled him into the closet with her.

            "What are you doing?" Eben asked Colleen after he figured out what had happened.

            "We need to talk again," Colleen said to Eben as she locked the door. She turned around and looked towards the taller boy and noticed that he looked a little bit nervous. At first it confused her, but then she realized what he must have been thinking. "No I didn't mean that we are…I mean, not that I wouldn't be…Well I mean, it's not like…" Colleen and Eben were suddenly both very embarrassed and turned away from each other. In the back of her mind, Colleen actually found it a little funny that despite how hard Eben tried to be a badass that he could actually be nervous about being in a closet with a girl.

            "Let's try this again," Colleen said. "Enough is enough. The vampire situation is starting to get out of control. You know something that we don't and it's stupid for us to be keeping information from each other."

            "What makes you think that I have information that you don't?" Eben asked Colleen. Colleen was now fully aware of how awkward Eben felt in this situation. She decided that she should fully take advantage of the situation. Not because she wanted to, but for the sake of the world.

            "I don't know," Colleen said with a playful smile as she took a step towards Eben. With her Slayer senses, she noticed the way that Eben began to sweat a little. "I mean, it's just I feeling I have. Right here." Colleen put her hand on Eben's chest and tried not to smile while she felt how fast his pulse went.

            "I'm sure that if you did have information," Colleen said as she started talking lower and leaning in closer to Eben. "We could figure out some sort of an exchange."

            "An exchange?" Eben repeated.

            "A reward," Colleen said, talking lower and leaning in closer to Eben.

            "A reward," Eben said, doing the same thing that Colleen had done.

            "Okay?" Colleen asked in a whisper, her lips about an inch from Eben's lips.

            "Okay," Eben whispered as he leaned in to kiss Colleen.

            "Okay," Colleen said in a normal tone as she suddenly moved quickly to the closest door and unlocking it. "Come to the Magic Box around 6:00."

            With that, Colleen left a very confused Eben in the closest and began walking towards the exit of the school with a broad smile on her lips.

*****

            All throughout Cassio's lair were scattered books and other volumes. Each of the volumes had something in common with each other. They all provided absolutely no information about the Living Vampire. However, Cassio's luck had suddenly changed. Now Cassio had a lead in the form of the Oracle.

            "So this is the big competition that I keep hearing all about," Cortez announced his presence with his arrogant voice booming through the abandoned warehouse that Cassio choose as a lair. Cassio suddenly closed his book and threw it under a pile of other books while he stood up, looking for the sound of the voice. He finally saw that Cortez was staring right at him, flanked on each side by three rough looking vampires.

            "Huh," Cortez said as he eyes Cassio up. "I was expecting a little bit more."

            "So you must be Cortez," Cassio said as he tried to not feel intimidated by the older vampire's presence. Slowly his minions were beginning to flank his side. "I heard that you were in Sunnydale."

            "Probably for the same reason as you," Cortez said. He walked forwards and right past Cassio without even flinching. Cortez eyed through all the papers on the table and Cassio hoped that he wouldn't see the book on the floor.

            "Which is the same reason that every vampire is getting to Sunnydale as soon as they can," Cassio tried to keep up the conversation.

            "The prophecies are all pointing towards this time," Cortez agreed. "And the word at Willy's is that you have a big lead on the prime candidate."

            "Is that so," Cassio said. He began to back up and lean against another table. Cortez looked up from the information on the table and back over to Cassio. He noticed the way he seemed to try to cover something on the table.

            "Yes it is," Cortez said as he walked towards Cassio. Not only was Cortez older than Cassio but he was also taller and all around bigger. Standing right in front of Cassio, he could easily see over Cassio's head and down to the table behind him.

            "What's this," Cortez said as he reached passed Cassio and picked up a book from the table. The book was the Sunnydale High yearbook opened to a page with Mike Dalton's picture circled in red ink. Cortez smiled and slammed the book shut.

            "Thanks Cassio," he said as he patted the younger vampire on the shoulder. "And don't worry about this. I'm sure you'll have your time one day."

            Cassio didn't move from the spot where he stood until Cortez and his men had left with broad smiles on their faces. Once he heard the door shut, he allowed himself to relax. He angrily walked over to the table he was at before and grabbed the book he threw under the table and began to read again.

            "I'm sure my day will come too," Cassio mumbled to himself. "Asshole."

*****

            "What's going on?" Dawn asked Xander, Anya, and Giles as they sat down in the family room. "Shouldn't you guys be at work?"

            "Dawn," Xander said, "Some things have happened that we need to talk about."

            Dawn tensed up a little bit. Despite trying to be honest with her guardians she still had a lot of secrets that she kept from them. "What's going on?" Dawn asked.

            "There's going to be some changes," Xander began to try to explain what was happening. He thought it would be best if they broke the news slowly. "Dawn-"

            "I'm pregnant," Anya gleefully announced abruptly, completely interrupting Xander.

            "Oh my God!" Dawn exclaimed with a broad smile on her face. Her and Anya both stood up and embraced in a big hug. "Anya that's incredible."

            "I know isn't it," Anya said to her. "I mean, first we have you as our fake child but then now we get to have a real child of our own."

            Dawn ignored Anya comment. "Yeah, that's um, great." She was still really happy though and they hugged again.

            "Congratulations," Dawn said to Xander as she sat back down on the couch next to Giles. "But why did Giles have to here for this?"

            "Well," Xander said. "That's the other news."

            "Anya and Xander's too be arrival isn't the only change," Giles began to explain.

            "Some other stuff has come up," Xander continued. "Dawn-"

            "Xander got a promotion which is going to mean much more money and much more space to live in and in a whole new state," Anya again interrupted her husband.

            "Anya, can you let me get a sentence out?" Xander asked Anya.

            "You're moving?" Dawn said in shock. "We're moving? Xander, I can't move. You know I have things going on right now that I just can't abandon." Dawn looked nervously over at Giles. She wasn't sure if anyone had told him what had been going on with her.

            "That's where I come in," Giles began. He took off his glasses and looked towards Dawn. "Dawn, I can't say that anyone is too pleased with your decisions. Furthermore, we're even more concerned with you're new abilities." Dawn looked down at her feet while Giles talked. Giles sighed and continued. "However, we all now that you are Buffy's sister. We're becoming more and more aware of that as you get older. You have the same fire inside of you that she had. Lord knows that there would have been no way to stop Buffy from her calling, even when she thought that was what she wanted. And even though the calling is not yours, you chose it anyway."

            Giles had stood up by this point and was pacing the room. "Anyway," he began again after pausing. "With Anya leaving the Magic Box behind I have decided to reclaim my ownership. This means that very soon I'm going to be looking for a house in Sunnydale. And since living in a house by yourself can get very lonesome, I was wondering if you would care to move in as well."

            Dawn looked up from her feet and gave Giles a look of awe. Suddenly, she ran from the room and gave the older man a huge hug. Giles smiled to himself and hugged Dawn back.

            "Thank you Giles," Dawn said to her sister's former watcher.

            "You're welcome," Giles said. After Dawn had let him go he put his glasses back on. "Now don't think that this lets you off the hook for your little display you put on when you came in. I want to sit down with this boy and have a long talk with him."

            Dawn was instantly blushing a bright shade of red.

*****

            Mike pulled into Holly's driveway and picked her up. They exchanged pleasant greetings and kissed, but Holly could tell that there was something wrong with Mike.

            "Okay Mike," Holly said, making her voice sound more serious than it had been. "What's wrong?"

            "Nothing," Mike lied to her.

            "Mike," Holly put her hand on Mike's knee and looked into his brown eyes. "Tell me what's going on."

            Mike sighed and pulled into the closest parking lot. He parked his car and shut off the engine. "I'm afraid," Mike finally admitted.

            "Afraid about what?" Holly asked him with concern.

            "I'm afraid of what Eben is going to tell us," Mike had been looking straight ahead into space. He turned to face Holly. "I'm afraid of what I'm going to find out about myself."

            Holly hadn't been expecting Mike to say that. "Mike," Holly said, not really knowing what to say. "Whatever information that Eben has it's not going to matter. We know you better than anyone else."

            "These last two years," Mike began to stare blankly again. "I've felt like nothing has been in my control anymore. From the time that I found out about vampires and demons, to where I almost died, to where I suddenly have super powers, it just all feels like I'm being strung along. Like someone else is calling the shots in my life. And it all just feels like I'm being set up, like all this buildup is just getting me high enough so I can fall just enough."

            "Don't think like that," Holly told Mike. "You can't think that you don't have a say in your own life. Everyone is in control of their own destinies."

            Mike laughed a little. "How can you say that when we have _spoken to The Powers That Be?" There was a silence for a moment as both Mike and Holly just stared into space. Mike shook his head to himself and spoke quietly. "I've been the boyfriend, the cheerleader, the victim, and now the hero. What if the next part that I'm supposed to play is the villain?"_

            Holly had heard enough. Grabbing Mike by the sides of his head, she pulled him close and kissed him several times. Holding the last kiss a little longer than the others, Holly slowly pulled back.

            "I love you," Holly told Mike. "I know that we haven't been dating for that long but I have loved you for a long time." Tears were coming down Holly's cheeks and Mike was beginning to say the same. "And I love you enough to know that I will never let you become the villain."

            Before Mike could respond, Holly leaned back into him and they kissed again.

*****

            Jordan walked the entire way from his house to Aaron's apartment. He had no idea why Aaron insisted that he walk to Aaron's apartment instead of just picking him up on their way to the Scooby meeting, but he didn't really mind the walk. Reaching Aaron's door, he knocked and Aaron let him in only a few seconds after he stopped knocking.

            "Were you waiting by the door?" Jordan asked in confusion.

            "Yes," Aaron admitted.

            "And I find myself asking why?" Jordan said to Aaron.

            "Well see, Dawn's guardians sort of caught us in a compromising position," Aaron explained to Jordan.

            Jordan had to stifle a laugh. "Are you serious?" Jordan asked him.

            "Yeah," Aaron told him. "And now I'm too afraid and slightly embarrassed to go over there by myself to get Dawn."

            "I see," Jordan said. "And this is where I come in."

            "Exactly," Aaron told him as he grabbed his coat. "Are you ready?"

            "For distraction duty?" Jordan asked him. "Always."

            Jordan and Aaron left Aaron's apartment and walked downstairs towards Dawn. Staring at the door for a moment, Aaron knocked and then held his breath until someone came and opened the door.

            "Oh it's you," Anya said as she opened the door, giving Aaron a smile that teased him for what he was caught doing. "Come in," and then she turned and yelled through the apartment. "Dawn, your boyfriend is here."

            Aaron and Jordan walked into the apartment and saw Xander and the man that he didn't know sitting in the family room. He couldn't wait for Dawn to come out so they could leave.

            "Aaron," Xander said to Dawn's boyfriend, "This is Giles. Giles, the boy you know from earlier is Aaron. The other one is Jordan."

            "Ah yes," Giles said. "The psychic."

            Jordan flashed Aaron a confused look and Aaron turned to him and just shrugged. Dawn came out just as the introduction had been made.

            "Okay," Dawn said as she grabbed onto Aaron's sleeve. "Let's go." The hurry in her voice was evident.

            "Not so fast young man," Giles said towards Aaron while Dawn was still pulling him towards the door. "I would like to have a talk with you."

            "We're late Giles," Dawn told him when they were at the door. Aaron looked between Dawn and Giles, having no clue what was going on. Jordan followed behind Dawn being even more confused than Aaron.

            "Another time then," Giles said, a little bit of annoyance in his voice.

            Dawn and Aaron were the first out of the door. Jordan turned towards Giles and Xander. "It was nice meeting you," Jordan said before he shut the door.

            "Okay," Aaron said once they were walking to his car. "What was that about?"

            "It's a long story," Dawn told him.

            "Can I have the cliff notes?" Aaron asked her.

            "Xander and Anya are moving," Dawn told him. "Giles is Buffy's old watcher and I'm going to live with him so I can stay in Sunnydale. He wants to have a talk with my boyfriend."

            "A talk?" Aaron said mid stride. He stopped. "But he's British."

            Jordan and Dawn stopped walking and turned back to stare at Aaron. "What does that have to do with anything?" Jordan asked Aaron.

            "British people intimidate me," Aaron explained.

*****

            When Aaron, Jordan, and Dawn got to the Magic Box they found Mike, Holly, and Colleen sitting on the curb waiting for them.

            "Oh yeah," Dawn said as Aaron went to unlock the door. "Anya closed the shop early today."

            "Anya closed the shop early?" Colleen asked in disbelief. "But how will she cumulate more money?"

            Everyone laughed as they walked into the shop. Jordan, who was the last person in, almost closed the door on Eben, who had just arrived.

            "Sorry," Jordan said as he opened the door and let Eben in.

            Eben came into the shop with a backpack on. Colleen noticed the way that he looked slightly embarrassed and awkward and smiled to herself.

"Here," Eben said plainly as he set the backpack on the circular research table. "This is all the information that I have."

Everyone moved to sit around the table and see what Eben had brought. In the backpack were several different books. All of them were collections of various prophecies. There were bookmarks on certain pages which contained information on the Living Vampire.

"And the Living Vampire and the Slayer shall have known each other," Aaron read from the first book he opened. It was the same prophecy that Cortez had said to Colleen that she had in turn told the Scoobies. Aaron continued to go through all of these books.

"Where did you get these from?" Holly asked Eben.

"They were my father's," Eben told her.

"Why did he have these books?" Colleen asked Eben.

Eben just smiled. "Just because I'm helping you doesn't mean I'm becoming one of you. I still have my secrets and you have yours."

"How did you know?" Mike asked as he pulled out a newspaper clipping. It was from last year when Mike had been playing Varsity as a sophomore and the newspaper had done a profile on him. Eben had circled Mike's picture in red ink. Mike did not look happy about finding that among Eben's books.

"I was sent a Vision," Eben said to Mike.

"And you're vision told you that Mike was the Living Vampire?" Jordan asked Eben. Eben nodded. Jordan looked a little disappointed. "How come I didn't get a Vision about it?"

"Maybe because you already knew that?" Dawn said to Jordan while she opened a new book. The book was written in a language that Dawn didn't even recognize. "What language is this?" Dawn asked Eben.

Eben looked over at the book in Dawn's hands. "Oh that one," Eben said. "I don't even know. It was with all of these other books though so it most likely deals with the Living Vampire."

Aaron looked over at the book as well. "I'm not positive," Aaron said as he took the book from Dawn's hands. "But I think this isn't a language at all. It's a code that some occults used a while ago. If this is what I think it is then I have a codec back at my apartment."

"How sure are you that it is that code?" Colleen asked Aaron.

Aaron shrugged. "Not very," he admitted. "But it would be worth a shot to go and get it."

"I'll go with you," Mike told Aaron. "I need to take a break."

No one said anything about the tension between Mike and Eben while Aaron and Mike left the store.

*****

Cooper, one of Cortez's fledglings, patrolled the streets of Sunnydale with two other vampires. Cortez had sent out several of these groups, each with a picture of Mike Dalton in hand. Copper was getting very bored with this whole reconnaissance mission. He would much rather just be ripping the throats out of some patron at the Bronze. However, Cortez was the boss and what ever he said Cooper did.

Cooper was glad that he didn't give up though, because as he walked down a sidewalk he watched as Aaron and Mike drove by in Aaron's Jeep. Smiling, Cooper and the other two vampires chased after the Jeep. Vampires can move incredibly fast when they need to. They can move fast enough to keep up with the Jeep for the 10 blocks to Aaron's apartment building. When Aaron and Mike were getting out of Aaron's car, the three vampires were right by their side.

"Can we help you?" Mike asked the three men that stood in front of him.

"Mike Dalton," Cooper asked. Mike nodded. "Perfect." Cooper and the other two vampires shifted into game face and rushed Aaron and Mike. Mike took less than a second to react and was fighting back against the three vampires, barely keeping them at bay. Aaron stood between Mike and the door to the complex, not sure what to do.

"Go," Mike said. "Go get the book and then get back down here fast."

Aaron nodded and rushed towards the door. Just as he was leaving though, Cooper caught sight of the book in his hands and immediately recognized it as a text called the Davenport Volume. Cooper knew how valuable and rare that book was and attempted to go after Aaron to retrieve it but couldn't get through Mike.

While Mike continued to fight the three vampires, Aaron ran as fast as he could towards his apartment. Once he was in his bedroom he completely wrecked his normally clean room while looking for the codec. He found the book, but in his rush and panic he had forgotten the Davenport Volume in his room.

Aaron quickly left his apartment with the codec in hand. He locked his door and when he turned around Mike was fighting against Cooper and one other vampire in the hallway. Mike had managed to stake one of the vampires in the parking garage and was now in the process of staking the other vampire against one of Aaron's neighbor's door.

Cooper saw that he was now outnumbered. Looking to see what door was Aaron's, Cooper rushed past Aaron and jumped out of the third story window. Aaron and Mike ran to the broken window and looked down to see Cooper running into the streets.

"Where is he going?" Mike wondered out loud.

"Reinforcements?" Aaron suggested.

"For us or for him?" Mike asked.

"Both," Aaron said. "Let's get back to the shop."

*****

"You're sure it was the Davenport Volume?" Cortez asked Cooper while they and several other vampires stood outside of Aaron's apartment door.

"I'm positive," Cooper told him.

"And are you positive that this is the apartment it was in?" Cortez asked him. Cooper nodded. Cortez then knocked on the door several times. Since Aaron was at the store and his parents were once again out of town, no one answered. Cortez waited a minute or so at the door.

"Hmm," he said to himself. "Looks like no one is home." He sighed. "Oh well." He lifted up his hand and snapped his fingers. Several vampires began dumping gasoline on the door and throughout the hallway.

"We're either going to flush that book or keep it out of anyone else's hands," Cortez said to himself with a smile. Once all the cans of gas were emptied Cortez pulled out a book of matches. Lighting one, he lit the match and let it drop to the floor, which immediately created a raging fire. All of the vampires ran to the broken window and jumped out to get away from the fire. Hiding in various places around the apartment building, the vampires waited for the Scooby Gang to arrive on the scene.

*****

Mike and Aaron burst into the Magic Box with only the codec in their possession. "We have trouble," Mike announced.

"What's going on?" Colleen asked. "Where is that other book?"

Aaron looked down at his hands and finally realized that he left the other volume at his apartment. He slapped himself on the forehead, feeling like a moron.

"I must have left it at my place," Aaron admitted.

"And that's the big problem?" Jordan asked in confusion.

"No," Mike told him. "Some vampires attacked us at the apartment complex. One of them ran off."

Holly wrinkled her nose. "I wonder what that is all about."

Suddenly, Dawn's cell phone went off in her purse. She pulled it out and answered it.

"Hello," Dawn said into the phone. "I'm at the Magic Box. Why what's…" Dawn's face contorted into and expression of shocked horror. "No! It can't be…okay…okay…we're on our way." Dawn hung up the phone and everyone looked at her.

"My apartment complex is on fire," she announced. Everyone let out a little bit of a gasp.

"That can't be a coincident," Colleen announced. "We have to get there now." Colleen looked to Dawn and Dawn nodded. Colleen turned to Eben. "Are you coming?" Eben nodded as well. "Then let's go."

Eben wasn't sure what happened, but suddenly they were traveling though a green light.

*****

When they arrived at the apartment complex, the Scooby gang was shocked at how quickly the fire had spread. Dawn looked around frantically and finally saw Xander and Anya. Even though she was a little fatigued from her teleportation, she still raced over to them.

"Where's Giles?" Dawn asked them.

"Back at his hotel room," Xander explained.

"Are you guys okay?" Dawn asked them. They nodded.

"Dawn!" Colleen shouted. Dawn looked to Colleen and then to where Colleen was pointing. Vampires were appearing from all around the perimeter of the complex.

"Looks like we were right," Mike said with a sigh. Colleen, Mike, Holly, and Eben all scattered and started to attack different vampires.

"Dawn," Aaron said as he and Jordan raced over to her. "We need to get into my room and get that book."

Dawn nodded to Aaron but took a final look at the area outside of her apartment building. She watched as people were pouring out of the building and into the hysteria of the much too public fight. The four demon fighters were doing their best to keep their fight in the shadows. Luckily for them, everyone was more preoccupied with the burning building. Dawn watched as a vampire made it past Holly and was coming towards the people leaving the apartment. Xander saw him too and seeing a piece of stray wood he managed to catch the vampire by surprise and stake him. Giving Anya a kiss on the cheek, he went over to try to help the others, punching the vampire that Holly was fighting in the face, knocking him towards her.

"Let's go," Dawn said, and the three of them disappeared in a swirl of green energy."

*****

Aaron's room was incredibly hot, and the flames would be making their way inside at any second. When the three teenagers arrived in the room, they began to cough from the smoke that was quickly replacing the air. Aaron wasted no time and grabbed the book, as well as a few other books and magickal items. He threw them all in a backpack and returned to Dawn's side.

"Do you have everything?" Dawn asked him. Aaron took one last look at his room which would seen be nothing but ash.

"No," Aaron said. "Let's go." With sad expressions on their faces, Dawn teleported the three of them to the Magick Box. When they reappeared, Dawn had to sit down for a moment to rest. Aaron walked towards the back of the store and tried not to think about all of the irreplaceable things that he was losing.

"Dawn," Jordan said as he sat down next to Dawn, "Do you think you can handle a few more jumps?"

"Why?" Dawn asked Jordan.

"There might be people still inside the building," Jordan explained. "I could reach out for them, sense where they are. Dawn, I don't think I could handle someone dying in a fire that was our fault."

Dawn saw the way that Jordan's eyes seemed to plead at her. "Let's go," she told him.

*****

Colleen dusted the vampire she was fighting and was caught by a blow to the back of her head. Turning around, she was confronted with Cortez looking at her with a smile.

"Why?" Colleen asked with a furious whisper.

"Why?" Cortez repeated Colleen's question. He landed another blow to her face. "Isn't the fact that I'm a demon reason enough?"

Colleen and Cortez began to engage in a furious battle. Cortez had managed to knock the stake out of Colleen's hands and it landed far enough away that she wouldn't be able to get it. Even without the chance to dust him, Colleen still fought hard against her opponent.

Cortez knew that there was no chance for him to get the Living Vampire tonight. As he looked around he saw that most of the vampires were already dust because of the four warriors and Xander. When the tables had turned enough that Cortez knew he had to get away, he gave Colleen one last kick to her head and ran off. Although he hadn't won anything that night, he knew that he had dealt a blow to their spirits.

*****

"Is everyone all right?" Xander asked everyone who was gathered at the Magic Box. The six Scoobies, Eben, and Anya all said yes or nodded. Nobody was in any kind of mood to be light or joke.

Colleen and Eben were both towards the back of the store. Colleen turned to him and saw the way that he just watched what everyone else was doing. She moved closer to him.

"Shouldn't you have teleported off by now?" Colleen asked him.

Eben shrugged. "I just wanted to make sure that everyone was okay."

Colleen gave him a smile. "Thanks," she said. "For everything.

*****

Xander, Anya, and Dawn were in Anya office. Before Xander or Anya could open their mouths, Dawn got the first word out.

"I'm not going to change my mind," Dawn told them point blank. "They need me. They need my powers. I'm not going to leave."

"We figured as much," Xander said with a half smile. "Summers women are always the most stubborn."

All three of them had tears that were beginning to form at their eyes and roll down their cheeks. In one night they had lost everything, including their small family. Anya was the first to move. She ran over to Dawn and gave her a hug.

"Don't die, Dawn," Anya told her as she cried. "Don't die. Please?"

Dawn continued to cry as she hugged Anya back. "I won't," she told her. "I promise."

*****

Author's Note: Another longer than I expected chapter. What's going on with me lately? Anyway, as usual, you must now review. Please? Other than that, some other big news. I've started my first story outside of the Sunnydale Universe. I'm going to be continuing Ajaya's story from Kantayra's Seventh Slayer Universe. If you've never read any of Kantayra's incredible fiction then I suggest that you do it now. She's one of the best author's out there.


	6. One Night

Disclaimer: Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me. 

Colleen: Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth. 

Jordan: Psychic chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions. 

Holly: The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon. 

Mike: Something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire. 

Dawn: The ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form. 

Aaron: Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, this teenager has developed an impressive amount of power.

*****

Monica Peterson was taking back the night. More specifically, she had decided that she would walk home from the library instead of bothering her parents by asking for a ride. Sure, everyone in Sunnydale knew that it wasn't safe to walk by yourself after dark, but Monica wasn't the type of person to live her life in fear. 

When Monica heard a twig snap behind her, she felt her courage waiver a little. Casually, she looked over her shoulder to see who was there. However, when she looked behind her, no one was there. Not feeling at all relieved by this, Monica decided that she would quicken her pace slightly. Her pace quickened even more with every voice that she heard that she couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from. When she heard a voice right behind her, she completely stopped and looked behind her. No one was there. 

Frantically, Monica turned her head in every direction looking for the source of the unknown voice. "I'm warning you right now," Monica yelled out to her unseen stalker, "I have mace and I'm not afraid to use it." Monica waited around for a moment and no one appeared. Tentatively, she began to walk again. "Or at least some very strong breath spray," Monica mumbled to herself. 

Suddenly, as Monica passed by an alley, a pair of hands reached out and pulled her into the shadows. She thrashed for a few moments, but it wasn't long before she was being drained by four vamps. 

In the center of the same alley, a familiar energy pattern was beginning. The air became slightly translucent a few moments before Cassio apparently stepped out of no where. On his face was a look of newfound enlightenment. 

"Well isn't that interesting," Cassio said to himself, not even bothering to drink from the last of Monica's blood. 

*****

Holly was working as fast as she possibly could. She was only on page three of her ten page response to Oedipus Rex. She looked down to the lower right hand corner of her computer monitor and saw that she was supposed to be at Mike's in half an hour. There was no way she was going to get this paper done before she left. 

Holly sighed and got out of her chair. She walked over to her bed and collapsed onto it. She put her head in between her pillows and tried to figure some way to save the world and not get a C in English. Her best option at this point was to try to hammer out another page or so before she left for patrol and then possibly pull an all-nighter to get the paper done. Of course, if she did that, she was going to have to take a nap after school tomorrow so that she could still patrol the following night and that meant that it was going to be a Mikeless afternoon. 

Holly sighed. Being a super hero looked so much more glamorous on television. 

"Holly?" Tracy Nils asked as she poked her head into Holly's room. 

"Hey mom," Holly said, staring up at her ceiling. 

"What's wrong?" Holly's mom asked as she sat on the edge of Holly's bed. She was dressed in her police uniform. 

"About seven pages of Oedipus Rex," Holly told her mom. 

"I'm sure it wasn't just assigned today," Holly's mom gave the typical mother response. Holly rolled her eyes at her mother. "Are you going over to Mike's house tonight?" 

"If I can ever get this paper done," Holly lied to her mother. She was going to Mike's regardless. 

"You've been spending a lot of time there," Holly's mom said to Holly. "You know you could always bring Mike over here." 

Holly sat up at that comment. Usually Holly's mom's attitude towards her and Mike's relationship was don't ask and don't tell. 

"Do you ever talk to Mr. Dalton?" Holly's mother tried to be casual as she talked to Holly. 

"Yeah," Holly told her. 

"Is he nice to you?" The mother asked her daughter. 

"Of course," Holly said, having an idea where this conversation was going. 

"I heard that he got engaged," Holly's mom tried to say nonchalantly. 

"She's no where near as hot as you," Holly said to her mom with a grin. 

"Holly!" Ms. Nils said to her daughter while still grinning. "Since when do you talk like that?" 

Holly thought about that question more than her mother had intended her to. When had she come out of her shell? "Since I grew up," Holly said to her mom, her expression only half serious. 

Tracy smiled to herself as she ran her fingers through her daughter's hair. "I knew it was bound to happen." Tracy stood up and put on her cap. "I like your haircut." Last week Colleen and Dawn had talked Holly into a new hair style. She was completely apprehensive about it at first but after she saw the end result she had to admit that she loved it. 

"Thanks mom," Holly said as she went back to her computer. "Stay safe." 

"Always will," Holly's mother told her as she got ready to leave her daughter's room. There last exchange was the same that they had always had since Holly was very little. "I love you," Holly's mother said as she was leaving. 

"Love you too," Holly said as she began to concentrate on her paper. "You need to get going though; you're going to be late." 

"Goodnight," Tracy Nils said as she shut her daughter's door. 

*****

"So if this Giles guy is like the expert on the paranormal then why are we doing this here instead of at your place?" Jordan asked Dawn as he layed on Mike's floor. It was taking them a lot longer than they thought it was going to take to get the information they needed out of Eben's book. 

"Because he's very, very British," Aaron said as he continued to attempt to translate the strange symbols in the book. 

"And that inhibits us how?" Mike asked. Mike didn't like to admit it, but he got very bored during these information gathering sessions. 

"Aaron's afraid of him," Dawn explained. 

"He still hasn't had his talk with you, has he?" Jordan asked Aaron. 

Aaron shook his head. "I've been avoiding him for two weeks and I'm content with it up." 

"And how does Dawn feel about this?" Mike asked Dawn although he phrased the question as though he was talking to Aaron. 

"Dawn is not a big fan of this plan," Dawn said in the third person. "In fact, if Aaron doesn't abandon this plan soon then he's going to find that he's getting a lot less _attention_ from Dawn." 

Aaron rolled his eyes and a moment later he rolled on top of Dawn. "Don't act like you could resist me." Aaron said with a smile as he kissed Dawn lightly on the lips. 

Dawn giggled a little as Aaron pulled away. She brought her lips up to meet his again but soon she was laughing loudly as Aaron was tickling her sides. 

"Aaron!" Dawn squealed while she was still laughing. "Stop it! I'm serious, cut that out!" 

"Yes," Jordan agreed. "Please cut that out." 

Just then there was a knock on the door. Mike called out for whoever it was to come in and Holly entered the room. 

"Hey Holly," Mike said as he got off of his bed and gave Holly a kiss hello. 

"Come on Jordan," Aaron said. "Aren't you going to make a snide comment to them?" 

Holly looked over at Aaron in confusion. 

"Never mind," Dawn explained to Holly with a smile. Aaron tried to tickle her again but this time Dawn teleported to the other side of the room to avoid. 

"That is so cheating," Aaron said to Dawn. 

"It's so not," Dawn said. 

"Jordan?" Aaron asked his friend. "Isn't that cheating?" 

"Why me God?" Jordan looked up to the sky in mock prayer. "Why does it always come down to me?" 

"We should probably get going," Holly said to Mike. "I got tied up with school work. We were supposed to meet up with Colleen a while ago." 

"Okay," Mike said as he grabbed his coat. He turned towards the others. "You guys can stay here if you want. Just go out the back door when you're done and in case my dad asks just say I had to run with Holly to the store or something." 

"Works for me," Aaron said. "Not like I have anywhere else to go." 

"Ahem," Jordan said with a fake cough. 

"I mean outside of my halfway home," Aaron clarified. His parents had cut their latest business trip short after Aaron had gotten a hold of them and told them about the fire. He wasn't as lucky as Dawn to have a brand new home conveniently waiting for her when her apartment burned down. With Aaron's parents only able to stay in town for a few days before they needed to get back to Europe there was only enough time to meet with a contractor to have plans for their new house drawn up. 

Aaron's parents had always planned on eventually getting a house in Sunnydale; they just had been putting it off. For fifteen years. But since they no longer had a place to live they were more motivated than ever to get one. However, with all the time it took to get everything settled on the house Aaron was left without temporary quarters. Luckily, Jordan's parents offered to take him in. 

"Okay," Mike said as he and Holly were leaving. "Don't touch my stuff." 

*****

For the last seventeen years, Tracy Nils made it a point to patrol the dark streets and sidewalks of Sunnydale while she was on duty. Not only did she take the usual equipment with her, but she also took some things that only would come standard on the uniform of a Sunnydale Police Officer. Very few other cities equipped their cops with stakes. 

Technically, no one officially said anything about the way that Sunnydale was different from other cities. In fact, ever since Mayor Wilkins left office, it seemed that the whole police station underwent a change. Very few cops stuck with the department. None of the new rookies knew the truth that most of the old cops had none, and Tracy was not the person who would tell them. 

Regardless of any new procedures, Tracy still patrolled the dark alleys even though she knew that demons were real. She knew more than most of the other police officers who were in the know. She had experiences that they could never relate too. Tracy was determined to never let another innocent women experience what she had gone through. 

Sometimes, when she thinks about it, she wants to go back in time and slap herself. She doesn't understand how she could have been so unbelievably stupid. In one night, every moral that she had, everything that made her who she was, was temporarily dropped for the convenience of the moment. She thought she loved him. She thought she had instantly become a believer of love at first sight. 

As she approached the Bronze on her patrol, she remembered how she truly believed that it was destiny. She never went out to clubs like the Bronze with her friends, but they had managed to drag her out there on her birthday. She had stuck to the shadows, running through ideas in her head of how she could sneak out and go home. That all stopped when she saw him. All she could think about was how blue his eyes were. When he touched her hand, it was almost like they were sharing the same soul. When he spoke to her, it was almost like he was speaking the words that were sown by her dreams. Before she met him, she never even imagined what love was. 

But then she learned what he really was. Then he stripped her innocence away. Not just her physical innocence, but he took away her fantasy and showed her the truth. He let her know that all the little doubts she had about the world that she locked in the back of her mind were true. And just when she thought that she was going to die, he proved how evil he really was. He let her live. 

Tracy knew that even though he hadn't killed her that she was still going to die. Although he left her body alive, he had killed her spirits. No one was able to lift her out of her depression. Just when she thought that she had hit rock bottom, she found out that she was pregnant. Her family basically abandoned her. Her friends pretended to be supportive even though she knew that they were talking behind her back. And in her mind, Tracy worried that she was bringing an evil, soulless creature into this world. 

When she went into labor, Tracy was perfectly willing to kill whatever demon was going to come out of her. However, when the doctors handed her the tiny baby girl, and Tracy looked into her pale blue eyes, she knew that this wasn't a soulless creature. Although she had no proof, there was no doubt in her mind. Her child was human, and she loved her more than anything else in the world. Her child was her only reason for living. 

"Somebody!" Tracy was snapped from her thoughts when she heard a desperate cry coming from the alley behind the Bronze. "Anybody! Please help me!" 

Tracy ran towards the back of the alley and saw a vamp that was about to feed on a teenage girl. Getting in between the girl and the vampire, Tracy delivered a few strategically placed blows to the vampire before she kneed him in the groin and pushed him to the floor. Tracy reached for her stake but before she could finish the vampire off she felt a blow to the back of her head, and then her whole world went black. 

"Thanks," the girl, in her vampire face, said to Tracy. 

*****

"You're going to die Slayer," a vampire told Colleen as he knocked her to the ground. The stake in Colleen's hand fell out of her reach and the vampire was quickly getting closer and closer to her neck. Looking though the corner of her eye she spotted a rock right beside her. She picked up the rock from the ground of the cemetery and smashed it against the side of the vampire's ahead. 

"I know I am," Colleen said as she calmly reclaimed her stake and turned the vampire to dust. "Just not for a very, very long time." 

"I didn't think that you did this alone?" Colleen didn't even have to turn around to know it was Eben. 

"All of our back up is currently tied up with translating that book of yours," Colleen explained to Eben as she dusted herself off. 

"How is it coming?" Eben asked. 

"Slow," Colleen admitted. "But I'm sure Aaron will get it." 

Eben nodded but didn't say anything. There was a silence that Colleen had no plans to break. Eben eventually sighed. "Well I was wondering, since we are both patrolling," Eben trailed off without finishing his idea. 

"I didn't think you did this with other people," Colleen said as she turned from Eben and started to walk away. Eben stood still. "Are you coming?" Colleen asked Eben without turning around. As Colleen heard Eben's footsteps behind her she wondered if Eben was still waiting to claim his part of the exchange. 

*****

Mike and Holly had a system down. Every time they staked a vampire they got to take a five minute break. It was supposed to only be a five minute break, but whenever Holly's lips came into contact with Mike's it was like time just seemed to move way too fast. Without breaking contact with her boyfriend, Holly looked down at her watch. Seeing what time it was, Holly let out an unhappy moan. 

"Hmm," Mike said in between kisses, "That's not exactly good for my ego." 

"We've been here for fifteen minutes," Holly told him before they kissed again. 

"No way," Mike said. Holly held up her watch so Mike could read the time. "Well I'll be damned." 

Holly sighed and let go of Mike. They began to patrol through the cemetery. So far that night they had staked a total of five vampires. 

"What do you think of Eben and Colleen?" Mike asked Holly out of nowhere. 

Holly was taken aback by the question. It was a very awkward question for him to ask her. Colleen and Eben's "relationship" had started while Mike was still dating Colleen. 

"I guess I really don't think much about it," Holly admitted. "I mean, it's not like they're even really together or anything." 

"Do you ever think that they will be?" Mike asked Holly. Holly really didn't like this conversation a whole lot. 

"I don't know," Holly said. "Maybe. Why are you asking me all of this?" 

"Just making conversation," Mike told Holly. At that moment Mike spotted a vampire about twenty yards away from them. "Showtime," Mike told her as he grabbed a stake from his cargo pocket and charged at the vamp. 

"Yeah," Holly said, a little less enthusiastic. Holly knew that Mike and Colleen still loved each other, even though they weren't still in love with each other. Even though she tried not to be jealous of Mike's love for Colleen, it was hard sometimes. Holly just wished that Mike loved her too. 

*****

"I think I finally found the passage we're looking for," Aaron reported to the others. 

Dawn looked over at the page that Aaron was looking out. "I don't know how you can even tell," Dawn said to him. "It just looks like a bunch of random squiggles." 

"That's how it's supposed to look," Aaron said. "It's the whole idea behind codes in general." 

"Are you sure?" Jordan asked Aaron as he got closer to see what Aaron was working on. 

Aaron paused a second while he checked something else in the codec. He then gave a nod. "Yeah I'm positive," Aaron said as he pointed at three different squiggles that were in three completely different places on the page. "This definitely refers to the Living Vampire." 

Jordan just accepted what Aaron said as the truth. "I'm glad one of us understands that." 

Just then, the door to Mike's bedroom opened. Aaron instantly slammed the book shut and a look of horror crossed his face as he realized that he had no clue what page he was on. 

"Hey," Jack said as he walked into Mike's bedroom. He looked very confused. "Where's Mike at?" 

"He went with Holly to the store for a little bit," Dawn gave an excuse to Jack. He seemed to buy it. 

"What are you guys doing?" Jack said as he noticed all the books and notes that were on the bed. He tried to look down and read some but Jordan quickly grabbed the notebook. 

"A project," Jordan lied. "For English." 

"Mike's in my English class though," Jack looked at them skeptically. 

"But Holly's in our English class," Aaron tried to salvage their excuse. 

"Oh," Jack seemed to believe their story. "So what are you guys doing?" 

"Right now we're taking a break," Dawn told him. 

"Really?" Jack said. "Because I am seriously about to go insane from boredom. Do you guys want to play some cards or something?" 

The three Scoobies looked at each other. Dawn and Aaron had known Jack from their advanced math and science classes. Jordan really didn't know him at all. They should be working on translating the book, but they had been doing that all night. In all honesty, they really were ready for a break. 

"Sure," Dawn said with a smile. 

*****

When Tracy Nils came to, she was chained to a wall in a dark room. She remembered the last things that happened before she was attacked and began to look around franticly. 

"Oh good," Cassio said as he approached Tracy. He seemed to melt from the shadows. "You're awake." 

"What are you?" Tracy asked, trying to put on a front of bravery. 

Cassio smiled. "Excellent pronoun use," Cassio complimented her. "That's very smart, asking what and not who." He walked around the room in front of Tracy. "I'm a vampire of course, just like you are a witch." 

"Sorry buddy," Tracy said to the vampire. "But you have your facts wrong on that one." 

"You're right," Cassio told her. "Witch would be stretching the truth a little. But you did cast a spell that's causing me a world of trouble right now." 

Tracy could count the number of spells she had cast in her life on one hand. They all had to do with Holly. 

"You're not going to touch her," Tracy said, hatred dripping from her voice. There was one thing in this world that Tracy wouldn't let anyone ever take from her, and that was Holly. 

"And we come back to the pronouns," Cassio said to her. "Not a 'her,' but rather a 'him.'" 

Tracy searched her memory. Either this vampire was completely wrong about something, or he was talking about Mike Dalton. "I have no idea what you're talking about." 

"Okay, I'm going to make this easy for you," Cassio told Tracy. "You cast a spell on Mike Dalton which binds his soul to his body. I'm giving you one shot to remove that enchantment." 

Tracy had no idea why anyone would be interested in the spell she had cast on Mike so many years ago. However, since she was talking to a demon, she knew that whatever his reasons were that there was no way that she was going to do it. 

"Go to Hell," Tracy told Cassio. 

Cassio sighed. "I figured it was going to have to be this way." Slowly, Cassio approached Tracy. As she saw him come closer and closer to her, she began to back up. When his fangs broke the skin on her neck, she began to scream. She pleaded with him, pleaded for her life. 

"You had your chance," Cassio said as he took his mouth from her neck, wiping the blood from his mouth. "But if I want you to be more cooperative before the sun comes up I'm going to have to do this now." 

"Holly," was all Tracy Nils had the strength to say. A single tear fell down her face as she felt her life pass quickly though her. This was all happening too soon. She couldn't leave. She couldn't leave Holly here by herself. Who was going to take care of her? Who was going to love her? 

"Aw," Cassio said as he cut his wrist and put it to Tracy's lips as she continued to fade fast. "Isn't that touching?" Cassio let Tracy drink for a long time. The more blood used in the siring process, the quicker the new vampire would wake up. Cassio nearly let Tracy completely drain him. Now that Cortez knew who the Living Vampire was, there was a race to claim his power. 

"Miller!" Cassio called out to another vampire in the layer. Miller quickly came into the room. "Go outside and see if you can find me a quick snack. I'm suddenly feeling very peckish." 

*****

"And that's another euchre," Jack said to Aaron and Dawn as he gave himself and Jordan another two points. Aaron flashed Dawn the evil glare of death. 

"What?" Dawn asked. 

"What do you mean what?" Aaron asked Dawn. "What did you call that on? Like Ace, Queen, Nine?" 

"Like you're really helping this team," Dawn said as she rolled her eyes at Aaron. Aaron gave her a little kick under the table. "Oh this means war," Dawn said with a smile while she and Aaron got into a kicking fight. 

"Are they always like this?" Jack asked Jordan. 

"Yes," Jordan said flatly. "_Always_." 

"I feel bad for you," Jack said as he started to deal out the next hand. 

Jordan shrugged while he looked as his hand. "It's not that bad." 

"It must not be," Jack said. "You six seem to hang out every single second." Jack looked around at the looks he was getting from the other three. "Not that it's a bad thing," Jack quickly covered for himself. "Actually, it seems kind of nice." 

"It's a fun little clique," Dawn said to Jack. 

"Hey Jack," Aaron said to Mike's to-be-stepbrother, "Have you been hanging out with that new kid?" 

Jordan and Dawn both waited to see where Aaron was going to be taking this. "Who? Eben?" Jack asked. Aaron nodded. "Yeah. He asked me for some help catching up in computer class. He's really cool though, we've been hanging out a lot lately." 

"Really," Dawn said, trying to act nonchalant. "He seems like kind of a loner." 

Jack shrugged. "Yeah he kind of is," Jack admitted. "He basically just comes over here and hangs out." 

"You guys don't go over his house or to movies or anything?" Jordan asked. 

"We're friends, we're not dating," Jack said with a small laugh. He suddenly seemed like her just remembered something. "Hey, is there something going on between Colleen and Eben?" 

"We honestly have absolutely no idea," Dawn admitted with a smile. 

"Yeah," Jack said as played the final card of the game, winning for him and Jordan. "He's really weird about stuff like that." 

"But not about other stuff?" Aaron continued to pump Jack for information. 

"No," Jack said. "He's pretty cool. Do you guys want to play again?" 

Aaron looked down at his watch. He really needed to get those prophecies translated tonight. "I would, but I really need to get the rest of my homework done." 

"Yeah, I should probably get going too," Jordan told Jack. 

"This was really fun though," Dawn said to Jack. She bit her lip as she debated whether or not she should say what she wanted to say next or not. "You should hang out with us sometime. I mean, with the whole group." 

Aaron tried his hardest to keep his face completely blank. Jordan didn't think that it was that bad of an idea. 

Jack smiled. "That sounds cool," Jack told them. 

*****

"It's getting pretty late," Holly commented to Mike. It was almost 1:00. "What did you tell your dad?" 

Mike shrugged. "Nothing really. Just that I was going out with you tonight. My dad gets really lenient when I'm with a girl. He won't even wait up for me." 

Holly smiled. "Well, I need to get back to my house and work on my essay some more. Do you feel like keeping me company?" 

"What time is your mom going to be home?" Mike asked Holly. 

"Not till early this morning," Holly told Mike. "Why, do you have something planned?" She gave Mike sly smile. 

"Just don't want to get you in trouble," Mike told Holly. "Are you sure you'll be able to work with me there?" 

"Honestly," Holly told Mike, "I really don't think I'm going to get this essay done either way." 

"Well then count me in," Mike told Holly. 

*****

"I think that's about it for all the vampires that we're going to see tonight," Colleen told Eben once they had gone for about half an hour without spotting one vampire. 

"Yeah," Eben agreed. 

"It looks like it's about time for me to sneak back into my bedroom," Colleen said as she thought about the long walk home. "There's no way that you could teleport me, is there?" Colleen asked Eben. 

Eben shook his head with a smile. "It doesn't work that way," he explained to Colleen. 

"How does it work," Colleen asked Eben. "I mean, how do any of your powers work?" 

Eben looked a lot less comfortable than he had a minute ago. "I don't know," Eben said lamely. "I just have these powers." 

Colleen made a face at him. "And yeah, I believe that because I was in fact born yesterday." Colleen lost patience with Eben fairly fast. It had been such a good night with him. She was starting to think that they were making progress. "What is it Eben? What are you hiding from me?" 

"I'm not hiding," Eben said to Colleen. "I'm right here." 

"Okay, that's the lamest thing I've ever heard in my life. And keep in mind, I hang out with Aaron, so I hear a lot of lame things," Colleen said to Eben. She switched to a more serious tone. "Why do you keep us all at an arm's distance?" Her voice softened a little bit. "Why do you keep me at an arm's distance?" 

Eben actually looked like he was a little sad. "Because I have to," he said quietly. 

"Why?" Colleen said. "Who says?" 

"You wouldn't understand," Eben said with genuine sadness in his voice. 

"Why don't you try me?" Colleen stepped closer to Eben. "Please?" 

Eben looked into Colleen's eyes and for a brief moment he was ready to let it go. He was finally ready to just give in and let someone else in. The problem with a moment is that it passes too soon. 

"I'm sorry," Eben said as he looked away from Colleen. Before she could do anything Eben teleported away. 

Colleen stood still for a moment, not reacting. She had been so close. She had finally almost gotten through to Eben. Maybe there was a chance. Maybe Colleen wasn't living a pipedream after all. 

*****

Cassio and all of the other vampires in the old warehouse that they had set up as a lair all turned their heads at the same time. Only hours after she had been sired, Tracy Nils had risen from the dead. 

"Wow," Cassio said as he approached the new vampire. "That was faster than I thought. So, are you ready to do that spell?" The vampire in front of him nodded. "Perfect." He led Tracy over to a table full of magickal supplies. "Is this everything you need?" 

Tracy looked over the different things on the table. Everything was there. "Yes," Tracy said as she began to go to work on the spell. "Now let's do this fast. I have other things that I want to do before the sun comes up." 

Cassio smiled. "That's music to my ears," he said to her. 

*****

"You're cruel," Holly said to Mike. 

"I'm not budging," Mike said to Holly with a smile as he sat beside her on the computer. "You only have to write four more pages. We're not doing anything till you finish this paper." 

"I'm just going to write garbage then," Holly teased Mike. 

"We both know that you're incapable of any form of bad writing," Mike told Holly while she punched on her keyboard. 

Holly rolled her eyes. "Yeah, now you're just lying." 

"Okay, maybe you don't know it," Mike admitted. "But I do. You're a phenomenal writer." 

"And you actually think I would accept a compliment like that?" Holly asked Mike. 

"No," Mike told her. "But you're going to know that I said it. And deep down, underneath all your doubts about yourself, you're going to know that it's true." 

"Okay," Holly said. "Now I'm positive that you're just making shit up." 

"Okay," Mike said. "Then how about this one. I love you." Holly stopped typing in the middle of page seven. She turned and looked towards Mike. "I was going to tell you that the other week in the car, but then you interrupted me." Holly moved towards Mike but he put a finger up and stopped her. "Nope, you still have to finish your paper." 

Holly couldn't believe that Mike did this to her. Now she knew that she was definitely just going to write garbage. 

Mike smiled as he left Holly's side and moved to the bed. He didn't say anything, but he suddenly felt very odd. It was almost as if he was sick to his stomach, but he didn't feel nauseous. He lay on Holly's bed and felt like the whole room was spinning. He wondered if it had to do with what he just told Holly, but he knew it wasn't true. Something was very wrong. 

*****

"So do you think that we'll actually go through with what we said to Jack?" Jordan asked Aaron. 

"Don't know," Aaron said while he continued to work on the translation. 

"I mean," Jordan kept talking while Aaron kept working. "It would be cool to have another non coupled member of the group. Not that I'm complaining or anything." Jordan thought about that for a moment. "Well I guess I am complaining." 

Aaron didn't respond. He just continued to write down in his notebook what he translated from the book. 

"I guess it really isn't possible," Jordan said while he continued to think about it. "I mean, we only seem to hang out with demons anymore. You can't really have a non demon fighting friend. It would just make things way too complicated." 

"Yeah," Aaron said, not really even paying attention to Jordan anymore. 

"Okay," Jordan said. "You're being way too quiet over there." 

Although the Clarkes had set Aaron up in the guest room, Aaron usually spent most of his time in Jordan's room. Right now he was lying on Jordan's floor working on his translation. Jordan finally got a good look at Aaron's face and saw that he had an extremely serious expression. 

"What's going on?" Jordan asked Aaron. 

Aaron shook his head. He had finished the translation. "It's not good at all." 

"What?" Jordan asked. 

"This prophecy," Aaron paused before he finally was able to form words again. "It talks about how another vampire will infect the Living Vampire." 

"Infect?" Jordan asked for clarification. 

"It's all it says," Aaron continued. "It then goes on to say about how the Fallen Living Vampire will open the Hellmouth." 

"Are you sure?" Jordan asked Aaron, his mouth dry. 

Aaron nodded. "I'm positive," he told him quietly. 

"Maybe you should check it over," Jordan suggested. 

"I already did," Aaron told him. 

"Well maybe you should do it one more time," Jordan said. "Just to make sure. Or give it to that Giles guy to take a look at." 

"I told you I already fucking checked it!" Aaron screamed at his best friend. There was a moment of silence between the two friends. 

"Maybe the prophecy is just wrong then," Jordan said in a whisper. 

"Yeah," Aaron said, not even slightly thinking that Jordan might be right. "Maybe." 

*****

"Done," Holly said with a smile as she climbed into bed next to her boyfriend. As she got close to Mike, she noticed that he didn't look that great. "Mike," Holly said with concern, "What's the matter?" 

Mike didn't say anything for a second. "I don't know," he admitted. "I just don't feel good all of the sudden." 

Holly took a good look at Mike. His skin was unusually pale and the look on his face made it seem that he was very disoriented. 

"Come on," Holly said as she picked Mike up. "We have to get you home." 

Mike really didn't want to go home. He had hoped that tonight could have been special between him and Holly. However, as he rose to his feet, he realized that he would have to put off tonight until some other time. Bracing himself on Holly's shoulder, they made it all the way to the front door. Holly opened the front door to a surprise. 

"Mom!" Holly said with surprise. "What are you doing home so early?" 

"I think I am the one that should be asking the questions here," Tracy Nils said in an uncharacteristically mean tone. "What are you doing here alone at this time of night with your boyfriend?" 

"He was just helping me with my paper," Holly told her mom. Holly was suddenly feeling very sick too. 

"I'm sure," Tracy said cruelly. "I wonder what I just walked in on." 

"Nothing," Holly told her mother. "I was just taking Mike home." 

"Oh no you aren't," Tracy said to her daughter. "I'll take him home." Tracy saw the way that Mike was leaning on Holly's shoulder. "Is he drunk or something? Were you two doing drugs?" 

"Mom no," Holly said in a quieter tone. "He just isn't feeling good." 

"I'm sure," Tracy said. There was a moment of silence between the three of them. No one moved or said anything. Holly was slowly beginning to realize what had happened. She didn't know if it was because of her low level psychic abilities or just an affinity with her mother. Despite realizing what had happened, Holly was definitely no where near accepting it to be true. 

"Why aren't you coming inside?" Holly asked her mom quietly. Tracy didn't reply. She just continued to frown at Holly and Mike. 

"Come inside," Mike told Tracy, as he was starting to get the same feeling as Holly. "Let's talk about this." Only someone who lives in a house can invite a vampire inside. Tracy continued to stand just a few inches from the door. 

"Hold on," Holly said to her mother. "Let me go help Mike sit down." Holly spoke very quietly and directly. She helped Mike over to the couch. Mike tried to get back up and he made very direct and urgent eye contact with Holly. Holly put a hand on his chest that told him to sit down. With a very sad kind of quiet, Holly reached into Mike's cargo pocket and took out his cross and stake. 

Holly kept the object behind her back and walked towards the door. "Come inside Mom," Holly said. With a smile on her face, Tracy walked through the threshold. Holly held her breath and with a fast motion, she shoved the cross into her mother's face. Faced with the religious item, Tracy Nils reverted to her vampire face. 

"No," Holly whimpered quietly. 

"What's the matter Holly," Tracy said to her daughter with a smile. "I thought you would be happy. I mean, now we're both demons." 

Tracy took another step towards her daughter who was frozen with disbelief. Mike couldn't take another second of this. Despite how dizzy he was, Mike leapt towards Tracy and tackled her through the door. 

Holly took a step closer to the door and watched as her boyfriend fought with her mother on her front lawn. She did nothing but stare. She knew that if Mike had been in perfect health that he could have made short work of a fledgling vampire. However, Mike was sick, and Tracy had been a skilled fighter when she was alive. 

Holly let a tear slip past her eye as she thought that last thought. Despite that she was currently moving and talking right before her eyes, Holly knew that her mother wasn't alive. She was gone. Someone had taken Holly's mother away from her. She thought about that and used it as motivation to stop her mother from killing Mike. 

"There's my little demon," Tracy Nils said to her daughter from the spot on the ground that Holly had knocked her too. Holly stood before her in her gold skin and gold hair. Tracy hadn't seen Holly like that in over ten years. 

"I'm nothing of yours," Holly said without a tone. "You're nothing to me." 

"Yeah," Tracy said as she stood back up and attacked Holly. "Just keeping telling yourself that." Tracy punched Holly in the face but Holly ducked her next blow. Holly landed a kick to Tracy's throat and then grabbed her and threw her across the yard. 

"Shut up," Holly said to her. 

"I mean, it's true that you are nothing to me," the demon spoke through Holly's mother's lips. "You little freak. Look at you. You're not even human." 

"Shut up!" Holly screamed, but Tracy's words were getting through to her. As they continued to fight, Tracy was taking the upper hand. 

"You were never human," the vampire continued. "You couldn't even pretend to be. You were always pathetic. Always a loner. Always different. And you took everything away from me. You took my family away from me. You took my fiancé away from me. You ruined my life." 

At this point Holly was crying. As Tracy continued to take the upper hand, she beat Holly enough that Holly slipped back into her human form. 

"You are a pathetic, disgusting creature," Tracy said as she reached for the gun that was still in the holster on her hip. She pulled out the gun and cocked it while pointing it at Holly. She shook her head as she looked at Holly. "I never loved you," she delivered her final blow. Holly could do nothing but stare at the body that once belonged to her mother and cry. Tracy prepared to pull the trigger when suddenly, her face contorted into an expression of shock. A few moments later, she exploded into dust. 

Holly watched as the dust cleared to reveal Mike, with a stake in hand, standing right behind where her mother had been a moment before. Holly looked into Mike's eyes and couldn't take another moment. She collapsed on the ground and bawled her eyes out. 

"I'm sorry Holly," Mike said as he collapsed to the floor beside her. He embraced her and Holly let her sobs out into his stomach. Mike sat up and ran his fingers through Holly's hair while she continued to cry. "I'm so, so sorry." 

Holly wasn't sure how long she had lay on the ground crying to Mike. When she woke up the next morning she had no recollection of going to bed. Looking out the window, she knew that she had slept through school. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered at that moment. In such a short amount of time, Holly had gained so much and lost everything. In one night, everything in Holly's life had changed forever.

*****

Author's Note: Yeah I know, that was very dark. Please review and tell me what you thought. No one reviewed chapter five at all. 


	7. Six Faces Part One

Disclaimer: Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me. 

Colleen: Buffy's successor both as the Slayer and as the guardian of the Hellmouth. 

Jordan: Psychic chosen by The Powers That Be to guide the Slayer with The Visions. 

Holly: The daughter of a human and a Sellar Demon. 

Mike: Something previously unseen on this Earth: A Living Vampire. 

Dawn: The ancient energy known only as The Key given a human form. 

Aaron: Although not the most powerful warlock in the world, this teenager has developed an impressive amount of power. 

*****

**Dawn**

I was standing in the middle of an ocean. Below my feet was the water with waves crashing all around me. The water wasn't firm or anything but yet I was still standing on it. In all directions there was nothing except for water. 

"I don't know who we're trying to kid," I heard Aaron's voice beside me. "Everyone knows that this isn't the way it's supposed to be." 

Aaron stood beside me on the water as we looked out at the sun setting. The enormous yellow sphere seemed to be dipping into the water just a mile away from us. As the sun moved into the water the sky was growing blacker and blacker. 

"It's wrong," I agreed with Aaron. 

"It's not supposed to be this way," Aaron said. "It's close though." 

"How should it be?" I asked him. Aaron looked at me and smiled. He opened his mouth but only electronic tones were coming out of his mouth. I stared at him in confusion and reached out towards him. As my hand passed through his chest I felt something vibrating in my hand. 

"Hello?" I said into the phone as I woke up. I had been dreaming but it was slipping from my mind really fast. 

"Dawn," I heard Mike on the other end of the phone. "Get dressed. I'm coming to pick you up." 

I looked over at the clock on the nightstand of my new bedroom. "It's 5:30," I pointed out to Mike. 

"I know," Mike told me. It was at that moment that I finally was truly awake. 

"What happened?" I asked Mike. 

I could here Mike hesitate on the other end of the phone. "Something bad," was all Mike said. 

"I'll be ready in ten minutes," I told Mike. He hung up the phone without saying anything else. I set my phone down and I was almost instantly up and getting myself ready. I showered faster than I ever had in my entire life. I was ready in eight minutes, which was a new all time record for me. As I was leaving my room I spotted my backpack on the floor. I wasn't sure if there was going to be time for school or not today. I figured it wouldn't hurt to bring it just in case. 

As I was in the foyer of my new house waiting for Mike I spotted a notepad and pen on the table. I paused as I tried to think of what to say to Giles. The truth would probably be my best bet. 

"_Giles_," I wrote on the note. "_Something has come up. I'm not sure if I'm going to school or not today. Call my cell whenever you read this_." 

As I set down my pen Mike was in the driveway. I walked out the door and locked it on my way out. I looked back over at the car and noticed that Colleen was in the passenger seat. Colleen looked shocked and almost like she was about to cry. Mike looked tired and numb. He had the kind of look on his face that a person gets when they have been running on adrenaline longer than they should. 

"What's going on?" I demanded as I got into the car. 

No one said anything until after we had pulled out of my driveway. "It's Holly's mom," Mike eventually told me. "She was vamped." 

"Oh God," I said. Colleen began to cry. I could tell that she had been crying for a while today. 

"She almost," Mike trailed off. He had to regain his composure. "There was nothing…it was bad. I had to stake her in front of Holly." 

No one spoke as we let the shock and horror sink in. I couldn't imagine what Holly was going through right now. Actually, I could imagine what it was like. It was probably a lot like what I had gone through three years ago. It was the same thing that Colleen went through last year. And although Mike's mom had died when he was really young, he had to grow up without a mother. I wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but as we pulled into Holly's driveway I realized that Mike had only gotten the Scoobies who had lost their mother. 

"Where is she?" Colleen asked quietly as we walked into Holly's front door. 

"She's in bed," Mike told her. 

"When did it happen?" I asked Mike as we each took a seat in Holly's family room. 

"A few hours ago," Mike said. "Holly was a mess. I brought her to her room and lay with her for a while until she eventually fell asleep. Then I just waited around until it was a reasonable time to call you two." 

"You didn't get any sleep at all last night?" Colleen asked Mike. 

Mike shook his head. "I couldn't," Mike told us. "I didn't want Holly to wake up and me not be there for her." 

"What about your dad?" I asked Mike. 

"I woke Jack up and told him to cover for me," Mike said. "I told Jack that I was sleeping over at Holly's. Ill let him think whatever he wants until I get the chance to talk to him." 

After that there was a long stretch of silence. No one really had anything they wanted to say. We watched the morning news as the sun was beginning to come up. The silence between us was broken when my phone began to ring. I looked down at the Caller ID and saw that it was Giles. 

"Hello," I said to Giles. 

"Dawn," Giles said. I could tell he was nervous. "Where are you? What's happening?" 

"I'm at Holly's," I explained to Giles. "Her mom was attacked last night." 

I saw the looks on Mike and Colleen's faces and I decided that it would be better if I had my conversation in the kitchen. 

"Is she okay?" Giles asked me. 

"No," I said after a pause. "She was sired and Mike had to stake her." 

"Dear lord," Giles said. "Is Holly alright?" 

"She's sleeping right now," I told Giles. "We want to be with here when she wakes up." 

"Of course," Giles said to me. "I'll call the school and tell them you're ill." 

"Thank you," I said to Giles. 

"Do you need anything?" Giles asked me. 

"No," I said to Giles. "We're just waiting till she gets up." 

"If you need anything at all," Giles said to me. 

"I'll call you," I finished for him. "Thank you." 

I hung up the phone and looked at the time. Aaron and Jordan would be leaving pretty soon to come pick me up. I sighed as I called Aaron's cell phone. 

"Hey," Aaron said as he picked up. "We're on our way." 

"No you're not," I told Aaron. "Colleen and I aren't going to school today." 

"Why not?" Aaron said. "I want to play hooky too." 

"No you don't," I told Aaron. "Aaron, something happened last night." 

"What?" Aaron asked, suddenly concerned. "Are you okay?" 

"I'm fine," I told Aaron. I could almost hear him becoming less tense. "Holly isn't though." 

"What happened?" Aaron asked. 

I paused for a moment. "Her mom was vamped. Mike had to stake her." 

"Holy shit," Aaron said quietly. There was a pause before began to talk again. "Is Holly okay?" 

"I don't know yet," I told Aaron. "She's sleeping right now. We're over her house." 

"Do you want us to come over?" Aaron asked me. 

"No," I told Aaron. "I mean not yet. We shouldn't overwhelm her at first." 

"Right," Aaron said. "But what should Jordan and I do?" 

"Just go to school," I told him. "We'll call you when you should come over." 

"Okay," Aaron said to me. "I love you." 

"I love you too," I told Aaron as I hung up the phone. 

I walked back into the family room and told Mike and Colleen what I told Aaron. After that we were in silence again. It took a while for the news to eventually sink in and for us to be able to make quiet small talk. Trying to talk after someone dies is so hard. It almost makes you feel like you are a horrible person for trying to live when someone else is dead. The conversations that we had were very quiet and not very extensive but we had to do something to kill time. Holly didn't wake up and come out of her room until 2:00 in the afternoon. 

***** 

**Aaron**

School was harder than usual. Not hard in the sense of the things that they were teaching me were difficult. School was always easy in that sense. It was hard because the seconds were taking even longer than usual to tick by. Every few minutes I found myself checking my cell phone to make sure that I hadn't missed a call. Every single time I left a class Jordan was almost instantly outside the door giving me a questioning look. Every time I had to shake my head no. 

I knew that Jordan was having a harder time than me. He was probably having one of the worst times. Jordan was closer with Holly than almost all of us. It was obvious that Jordan would have much rather been at Holly's house instead of at school. 

Me on the other hand, I wasn't exactly looking forward to when we would go over to Holly's house. It wasn't that I didn't care about Holly. I felt horrible and I wanted to help her. I just don't find situations like that comfortable. Well, _no one_ finds situations like that comfortable. Maybe it was just that I was afraid of those situations because I'd never had anyone very close to me die. 

By the time the last bell had rung informing us that it was time to go home my phone had still not rung. The atmosphere between me and Jordan was very tense. During the entire drive back to Jordan's house he didn't take his eyes off of my phone once. 

"The watched pot never boils," I said to Jordan with a small smile. 

"Good thing this isn't a pot then," Jordan said. He definitely wasn't in the mood to talk. Things had been rough between us before we went to sleep last night after I had finished translating the prophecies. Now everything was even worse. We walked into Jordan's empty house and immediately went up to his bedroom. As we sat down inside of his room, neither of us had anything that we wanted to say. 

I felt really bad for Jordan. I could tell that being here was tearing him up inside. I had to think of something to do to distract him for a little while. 

"Do you think you could help me with my telekinesis again?" I asked Jordan. I had found a spell that would allow me to focus my emotions into telekinesis. When I didn't succeed at first I had asked Jordan for help. He tried to coach me through it but I just wasn't getting it. 

Jordan quit looking at the wall when I asked him. He gave me a half smile. "Sure," he said. 

I went back over to my temporary room and gathered a few things that I needed. It was just a book, a few candles, some incense, and the feather that I had been trying to levitate. When I got back into the room, Jordan was sitting on the bed cross legged waiting for me. I lit the candles and incense and joined him on the bed. As I sat down the same way that he was sitting, I set the feather in between us. 

"Okay," Jordan said as he began to focus. "This is a lot easier than you are making it out to be. You just need to concentrate." Jordan demonstrated this so called "concentration." He closed his eyes and I watched as his face went almost blank. The feather between us shot up to the ceiling and then slowly floated down back to where it was originally lying. 

"You make it sound so easy," I told Jordan. 

"That's because it is easy," Jordan told me. 

"Maybe for an actual telekinetic," I pointed out. 

"I was just born attuned to the energies," Jordan explained. "You attune yourself to different energies all the time when you're casting. This shouldn't be that hard for you." 

"We'll see about that," I said to Jordan as I mimicked his expression. I tried to calm myself and focus on the feather. I imagined the feather between us. I drew a clear picture in my head. This was all the easy part. The hard part was going to be attaining some form of focus. 

The truth is I'm not the most focused person in the world. Adding to my already sizeable lack of focus was all this new stuff with Holly. I felt so many things at that moment. I was worried for Holly. I hoped that she was strong enough to get through this. I was scared about what was going to happen. This was the first real direct attack against one of our family members. I wanted to know if this attack was planned to just to hurt Holly or if it was just another random murder in Sunnydale. And above all else, I was angry. I was angry that there were creatures like vampires in the world. I was angry that people that I cared about had to get hurt and die. More than anything, I was angry that there was practically nothing that I could do about it. 

"Aaron," Jordan said as he shook me out of my concentration. He pointed up at the ceiling and I looked up. The end of the feather had managed to actually go through the ceiling. 

"Whoa," I said. 

"Yeah," Jordan said. "Looks like you're getting the hang of focusing your emotions. Now you just need to work on controlling it." 

"At least it's progress," I said to Jordan. I pointed my hand towards the feather and began to focus again. I held my hand out like a moron for about a minute before I gave up. "Or maybe not," I said with a small smile. 

Jordan chuckled a little. "It just takes time," Jordan told me as he pulled the feather out of the ceiling without even looking at it. 

I sighed. "Do you ever get tired of just being the other ones?" I asked Jordan. 

"What do you mean?" Jordan had no idea what I was talking about. 

"Colleen, Holly, and Mike are all _it_, you know?" I tried to explain to Jordan. "Me, you, and Dawn? We're just the other ones. We'll teleport or get a vision or cast a spell, but when it comes down to it we aren't the ones who save the world. It's them." 

"Unless you are casting the spell that is sealing the Hellmouth," Jordan pointed out. "Or Dawn is killing a goddess. We're a team." 

I shook my head a little bit at Jordan. "If one of us three left the team I think that we would be fine. What if we lost one of them?" 

"If _any_ of us were ever lost," Jordan said with a very sad smile, "I think we would be lost just the same." 

I was about to say something to Jordan but before I could I watched as Jordan's eyes seemed to go somewhere else. He was receiving a vision. However, unlike Jordan's normal visions, this one was different. I watched as Jordan collapsed on the bed. 

"Jordan!" I said as I grabbed him and tried to make sure that he was okay. It took a few seconds for the vision to eventually pass. "Are you okay?" 

"I'm fine," Jordan said as he stood up. 

"What is it?" I asked. 

"Much more than we need right now," Jordan said as he shook his head. 

Before I got the chance to press on my cell phone began to ring. 

***** 

**Holly**

I felt numb. It was like there was a shell around my body. Nothing could touch me. My insides were churning. I was nauseous. I would throw up if I wasn't constantly on the verge of breaking down into tears. My body was torn between so many different emotions. It was like everything was trying to rush into my brain but getting stuck in the doorway. All that was real right then was that I was empty. And I was alone. 

I wandered out into the family room. The second that my friends heard the door open they all turned at the same second. In that same instant they stood up and took quick first steps towards me. I must have flinched or something because they stopped. They decided rushing me wouldn't be the best plan. 

"Holly," Mike said slowly. I looked into Mike's eyes and saw them from the previous night. I saw the way that my mother's eyes just seemed to explode into Mike's eyes in my memory. That's when I finally was able to break through into my memories and recall what had happened the previous night. I must have started to cry because Mike ran up and embraced me. 

"It's okay," Mike said to me as I really began to cry. "Just let it all out Holly." Mike led me over to the couch and we sat down on it. I cried for a while before I finally realized that Dawn and Colleen were there too. 

"Hey," was the first thing that I said that day. It was so lame but it took so much effort to even move my lips. 

Dawn and Colleen didn't say anything. They just moved closer to me and hugged me and I started to cry again. It felt so good to cry. I had all this pain inside of me and crying was just letting it all pour out. 

"Police officers came by the house today," Colleen told me. I held me breath for a moment. "They came to tell you that your mother never came back from duty last night. We told them that when you woke up and she wasn't here that you called us to come over." 

I nodded slowly. Everything still wasn't real to me. "What did they say?" I asked. 

"Just that they were going to look for her," Colleen continued. "We thought it would be best if they declared her missing…" 

I began to cry again and everyone just held me. "You guys don't understand," I said as I slowed my tears down slightly. "She was all I ever knew. She did everything for me. Who is going to take care of me now?" 

"We don't know," Dawn admitted. "You just have to know that your mom is in a better place." 

I nodded. That was the standard response that anyone got after they lost a loved one. It sounded so nice too. I had never been a religious person. I mean, I knew that there was something else out there in the world. Being half demon you have to think that there is something else, but I was never exactly a believer in the greater good in the world. However, after what I experienced in these recent years, there had to be something good out there that I didn't understand. 

"I know," I said to Dawn and I did my best to attempt to give her a smile. "It just hurts so much." 

"No one is expecting it not to hurt," Mike told me. He grabbed my hand and held it tight. "We just want you to know that we're here." 

"It's a Scooby thing," Dawn told me with a smile. "No one ever goes through anything by themselves." 

I sniffled a little and smiled a little bit more. "Thank you guys," I told them. "But what's going to happen? Where am I going to go?" 

"Don't worry about that now," Colleen told me. "First we'll deal and then we'll figure out what to do." 

It was around then that I started crying again. No one really said anything. There wasn't exactly anything that needed to be said. I just cried and my friends were there to make sure that I had people there to support me. I was just happy that I wasn't alone. 

My hand flew to my head when I received the overflow form Jordan's Vision. I had no idea how I had become linked to Jordan's Visions, but somehow whenever he received one I got the runoff. 

Visions are definitely not the most effective form of communication. In all of the Visions that I have ever received, this one was by far the vaguest when it came to details. However, it was very effective in getting its message across. It was like a montage of scenes from all over town. In every single location there was a group of vampires. There had to be at least fifty vampires in all and they were all over. Something big was going down that night in the vamp world. 

By the time that I recovered from the Vision Dawn was already on the phone with Aaron. 

"Yeah," Dawn said after Aaron had answered. "Holly got it too. Get over here now." Dawn hung up without any more conversation. 

"What is it?" Mike asked me. 

"Vampires," I told Mike simply. "Everywhere. In a couple hours this town is going to be crawling with vampires more than ever before." 

"Why?" Colleen asked. 

I shrugged. "I don't know," I admitted. "It looks really really bad." 

"Colleen," Mike turned towards his ex-girlfriend, "Is there any way you could get a hold of Eben?" 

"Yeah because he makes himself so available," Colleen said sarcastically. 

"I'll call Jack," Mike said as he went into the kitchen. "He'll know how to get a hold of him." 

After Mike left I looked around the room. Dawn looked really anxious. She usually had a very anxious air about her when a fight was coming on. She had spent a lot of time learning how to fight this year and she had learned a lot. She didn't have strength though which was very important when you are fighting super strong creatures. 

On the other hand, Colleen was looking very angry. I could tell she was trying to hide it, but Colleen was mad. I'm very good at reading emotions. I really wasn't sure what had Colleen so upset. Maybe what happened to me had just brought back a lot of memories from last year. 

"I can't get a hold of him," Mike said when he got back. He turned to Colleen. "What are we going to do? We're down one person." 

Colleen nodded. I looked over at Dawn and she avoided eye contact. "What are you talking about?" I asked Mike. "How are we down one person?" 

Mike looked a little taken aback. "Holly," Mike said slowly, "You're in no shape to go out and fight tonight." 

"You're wrong," I said pointedly to Mike. "There's no way that I'm sitting on the bench." 

"Holly," Colleen turned to me. "Last year, when I first found out that my mother was turned I was in no shape to fight." 

"But you did," I pointed out to Colleen. "Even though it was hard you still fought." 

Colleen shook her head. "It's different though," she told me. "I'm the Slayer." 

"And I'm a demon," I told Colleen as I shifted into my demon form. "Colleen, I'm just as strong as you are. We're all warriors of The Powers That Be. I'm not going to sit out just because you guys think that I should." 

"I'm not letting you go out there," Mike said to me. I listened to the concern in his voice and tried to ignore it. "Holly, I'm not going to let you get yourself hurt." 

"Then why did you let me go out all those other nights?" I challenged Mike. 

Mike shook his head. "This is different and you know it," Mike told me. 

"You're right," I said to Mike. "This is different. Now I have a reason to go out there and fight." 

There was a tense silence in the room that was broken by Aaron and Jordan opening the front door. 

"Sorry to interrupt," Aaron said. He and Jordan were both holding bags from Wendy's. 

"We thought you guys might be hungry," Jordan said quietly. He made it a point to make eye contact with me. 

I gave him a smile. "I'm starved," I said as I retreated back into the kitchen. There was absolutely no way that I was staying out of the fight that night. 

***** 

**Colleen**

"I just don't know if this was the best plan," Aaron said as we walked through the park while the sun was setting. "These teams just don't seem balanced." 

"And again I'm reminding you that this isn't a competition," I said with a sigh. Aaron, Jordan, and I were patrolling the eastern part of town while Mike, Dawn, and Holly were patrolling the western part. 

"I'm going to have to agree with Aaron," Jordan said while we continued to walk. "Not on the team competition thing, but on these groups. Aaron and I have our skills but fighting isn't one of them." 

"You're with the Slayer," Colleen said to them. "You'll be fine." 

"Holly doesn't seem like she's doing that great," Aaron said. 

I sighed. "She's dealing," I told him. "It hasn't even been a day yet." 

"We should have made her stay home," Jordan voiced his opinion. 

"We weren't going to make her do anything she didn't want to do," I assured him. "That's why Mike and Dawn are with her. She has the most back up possible." 

We all stopped talking when it got dark enough for the lampposts to turn on. I was actually relieved that the fighting would start soon. I was sick of talking. I was sick of sitting around. I was sick of people I knew getting hurt. 

This town was my responsibility. It's the Slayer's duty to protect the Hellmouth. I was the first in a new line of Slayers and the only thing in my job description was that I had to protect the Hellmouth. 

So what do I do? I let someone that someone who is close to me loves gets killed. I let what happened to me happen to Holly. While Holly's mom was being killed, I was flirting with Eben. What the Hell kind of guardian does that make me? What kind of person does that make me? 

"Looks like it's just about that time," Aaron said as we all began to notice the large group of vampires that were walking towards us. 

"Here's the way this works," I said while Aaron and Jordan took out their stakes. "I'm going to knock them down and you guys are here to clean them up." 

"Got it," Jordan said. 

"Stay back," was the last thing I told them as I ran towards the group of vampires. There were only six. If I had to worry about staking them all I would be a little nervous. All I had to do was just hurt them enough so that they would fall. 

The vampires were grinning until they realized that I was running towards them. When they finally pulled their heads out of their asses and realized that something was up it was already too late. I jumped into a spinning kick and connected with one of the vampires in his back. As soon as I was back on the ground I landed two punches and another kick to the vampire in front of me. I spun around and kicked the vampire that was behind me right in the chin. 

I was in my element. I was doing what I was born to do. There are very few things in my life that I can control. However, when I'm kicking the crap out of a bunch of soulless demons, it gives me a very nice feeling of control. 

"That went smoothly," Aaron said as he staked the last vampire. "And since nothing we ever do goes this smoothly I'm getting very worried." 

"I don't know why you're worried," I said to Aaron. I wasn't even out of breath. "I can keep this up all night." 

"Well that's good," Jordan said as he pointed towards a clearing about twenty yards ahead of us. "Because you just might have to." There were about a dozen vampires in the field. 

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Aaron asked me. 

"Bring it on," I told him as once again I ran off into the middle of the fight. I started it off just as I started off the last one. I jumped in with a spin kick and landed right in front of another vampire. While I was punching that vampire though another one caught my legs in a sweep. The second I hit the ground I brought myself right back up. I turned to face the vampire that had attacked me. As I landed a few quick blows to the vampire's face I could sense another one coming up behind me. Without looking I elbowed the vampire in the face while pulling my arm back for another punch. Despite all of this, another vampire tackled me to the ground and without even hesitating lowered his mouth to my throat. As the vampire turned to dust, I looked up to see a stake floating in front of me. 

"Thanks," I said to Jordan. 

"Better get on your feet," Jordan told me. I noticed a vampire racing towards him. 

"Jordan!" I shouted. Jordan turned around and as he did the stake he was manipulating went plunging directly into the vampire's heart. Jordan mentally pulled the stake back into his hand while the vampire exploded into dust. 

I didn't get a chance to see what Jordan did next because as I stood on my hands and knees another vampire came and kicked me in the face. I rolled from the blow and used my momentum to get back on my feet. As I continued to move backwards I kicked myself off of a tree and put my foot right into the vampire's face. 

As hard as I continued to fight there was just way too many vampires. Even as Aaron and Jordan continued to dust them as fast as possible there were more coming from the shadows. We were starting to get even more outnumbered. At one point I looked over towards Aaron and Jordan. Aaron was attempting to fight a vampire in hand to hand combat while Jordan was knocked to the ground. I made a move to go help them when a vampire grabbed me by the ankle and brought me to the ground. I kicked the vampire that grabbed me in the face but he still held on tight. I moved to land another kick but before I could the vampire burst into flames. I looked back over to Aaron and Jordan and the vampires surrounding them were soon engulfed in flames along with every other vampire in the area. 

"Eben," I said as I noticed the only other person who was still standing. 

"What the Hell is going on?" Eben asked as he helped me to my feet. "Jack tells me that Mike was asking for me and now this whole town is crawling with vamps tonight." 

"You've noticed too," Aaron said as he and Jordan got closer to us. Aaron was bent over from exhaustion. 

"I've dusted at least twenty vampires tonight," Eben said. 

"The town's overrun," I tried to explain to Eben. 

"But you don't know why?" Eben asked. 

Jordan shook his head. "We have no clue," Jordan explained. "All we know is that The Powers sent me a vision telling us that this was going on." 

"Where are the others?" Eben asked us. 

"They're on the other side of town," I told Eben. 

"There are a whole bunch of vampires a little ways south of here," Eben told us. 

"And I'm sure there's just as many north of us," I said. I let out a sigh. "We should split up and take out as many vampires as possible. Eben, you go south with Jordan. Aaron, you're with me." 

"Be careful," Eben said to me before he took off heading south. Jordan's eyes bulged a little at the speed that Eben was going before he made his best attempt to keep up with him. 

"Well that was sweet," Aaron said to me as we began to move through the park once again. "The way Eben showed concern for you." 

"Aaron," I turned to Aaron and made sure that my voice showed that I needed him to be serious. When Aaron wasn't being annoying he was one of my best friends. Sometimes I felt like I had more in common with Aaron than anyone else. He looked at me and I could tell that I wouldn't be getting a sarcastic response. "What is going on tonight?" 

Aaron shook his head. "I have no idea," he told me. 

"You've been reading all of those prophecies," I reminded Aaron. "Does it say anything about a massive army of vampires attacking?" 

"Not specifically," Aaron said as he thought through the prophecies. "It does talk about hordes of vampires coming to the Hellmouth though. They also don't really paint a good picture for Mike's future." 

I stopped walking. Aaron stopped with me. "What does it say?" I asked him. 

Aaron shook his head again. This time he did it because of what he didn't want to have to say. "It talks about how the Living Vampire is going to be infected." 

"What does that mean?" I asked him. 

"I don't know," Aaron admitted. "But I do know that it will mean that Mike will have a lot of power. Enough to open the Hellmouth." 

I didn't know what to say. Mike meant more to me than almost everyone else in the world. It wasn't even because he used to be my boyfriend. I loved Mike, even if we weren't together. 

"Colleen," Aaron said very quietly as he pointed over to another clearing. "Look." 

I did what Aaron told me to do and almost had to take a step back. There was a large fire burning on a street that had a good number of businesses on it. Surrounding the fire were at least fifteen vampires. I couldn't recognize any of them except for one who was standing the closest to the fire. Bathed in the dancing light of the flames was Cortez. 

"Colleen wait," Aaron said as he grabbed my arms. On instinct I had begun to move towards Cortez. "There is no way you are going in there by yourself. You need backup." 

I thought about what Aaron said and knew that he was right. "Call Dawn," I told him. "Have them teleport here immediately." 

Aaron pulled out his cellphone and called Dawn. "You guys need to get here now," Aaron said to Dawn without even saying hello. "Trust me; it's a lot worse here." He paused as he listened to her response. "Well we need at least two of you." Another pause. "We're at the edge of the park right near the north gate. Get here now." Aaron hung up the phone and a few moments later Holly and Dawn were standing next to us. 

"What's going on?" Holly asked. Colleen pointed over to where Cortez and his men were standing. "Great," Holly said as her fist tightened. 

"Aaron," I got Aaron's attention. "Do you think you can do something? Cause a distraction or anything like that?" 

Aaron paused for a moment. "Well," he said slowly, "I think I might have an idea." 

"Do it," I told Aaron. 

Aaron reached into his cargo pocket and pulled out a baggy full of an orange powder. He poured the powder into his hand and began to chant a few words in a language that I didn't recognize. When Aaron had finished he blew the dust into the air. All four of us watched as the cloud of orange dust slowly made its way over to the already impressively large fire. As soon as it hit the flames, the fire became an even larger inferno. We watched as a few vampires instantly burst into flames. Unfortunately, Cortez was not one of them. 

"Let's go," I said mostly to Holly. We ran towards the vampires with our stakes in hand. In less than a minute we had each staked two vampires. Aaron and Dawn were staying a little further back and working together in an attempt to stake a few vamps. 

"Slayer," Cortez said as I finished staking another vampire. "You're just in time for tonight." Cortez ran towards me and we began our dance. Every blow that I landed on him was immediately followed by one of his own to me. 

"And what's tonight?" I asked him as we continued to fight. I tried to sweep his legs out from under him and he jumped over my attack. 

"A monumental night," Cortez said cryptically. I didn't get a chance to pry more information from him because another vampire got a little overzealous and knocked me to the ground. When I was back on my feet I was fighting this new vampire instead of Cortez. 

While fighting my new opponent, I looked over at Cortez and saw that he was now trading blows with Holly. Knowing that Holly would need my help I tried to stake the vampire as quickly as possible. Every time I made a move for its heart he would block my attack. I caught another glance at Holly right as she managed to knock Cortez to the ground. While Cortez was stumbling back he knocked the vampire I was fighting right into my stake. The vampire in turn fell into me causing me to drop the stake and fall to the ground. As the vampire turned to dust I watched as Cortez picked up my stake. His back was to Holly who was running towards him. To my horror, Cortez took the stake and surprised Holly with it, sinking it deep into her abdomen. 

"No!" I yelled as Holly returned to her human form and fell to the ground. I wanted to rush to Holly's side so badly but the rage I felt inside of me compelled me to go after Cortez. I landed blow after blow to Cortez before he fell to the ground. 

"Are you just going to let your friend die?" Cortez asked me. I looked back to Holly who was being attended to by Dawn. While I looked away Cortez kicked my leg right at the knee and I fell to the ground. When I got back up Cortez was no where to be seen. 

"Colleen," Dawn said as I returned my attention to Holly. I rushed over to them and fell to my knees at Holly's side. Aaron was with us in less than a second. I looked down to Holly's stomach and was shocked when there was no wound. 

"Holly," I said, almost in shock. "Your stomach." 

"It's only hurt in my demon form," Holly explained. "It'll heal while I'm human." Despite what she said, her voice was full of pain. I shouldn't have let her come out tonight. She wasn't thinking clearly and she wasn't able to fight to the best of her ability. I had let someone else get hurt. 

"Does it hurt?" Aaron asked her. Holly nodded. 

"You two have to get her out of here," I said to Dawn and Aaron. 

"We're not leaving you alone," Dawn said to me. "There's still a ton of vampires around here." 

"You have to get her to a hospital or something," I told them. 

"You heard what she said Colleen," Aaron told me. "Doctors can't help her." 

"She can't stay here though," I spoke with urgency in my voice. 

"And we can't leave you here alone," Dawn countered my argument. 

"Wait," Aaron said. "Let me try something." Aaron's eyes closed as he began to concentrate. There were a few seconds of silence before his eyes opened again. Moments later, Eben was by our side. 

"Okay," I said to Aaron, "How did you do that?" 

"I contacted Jordan telepathically," Aaron explained. He was massaging his temple which made me think that it wasn't exactly painless. 

"You're psychic now too?" I asked Aaron. 

"No," Aaron said. "Just good with magicks. It's a best friend thing." 

"I'm not even going to try to understand what just happened," Eben said as he jogged closer to us. That's when Eben noticed that Holly was on the ground. "What happened? Is she okay?" 

"No," I told Eben. "But they're taking her to get rest." 

Dawn looked up and I could tell she was a little pissed at me. "I'm coming right back," she flat out told me. "You're not going to stop me." With that, a swirl of green energy emerged from Dawn and encased herself, Aaron, and Holly before they all disappeared. 

***** 

**Mike**

"Dawn," I said as I wrestled with the vampire that was attempting to pin me to the ground. "You're supposed to put your cell phone on silent when you're fighting vampires." I managed to use my strength to roll myself on top of the vampire. Reaching for the stake that had fallen to the ground right beside us, I quickly forced it through the vampire's chest. 

"Hello," Dawn said as Holly and I continued to fight off the remaining three vampires. "As warm as that greeting was we're a little busy right now." Dawn paused while she listened to whoever was on the other end talk. "We can't all leave, there's still a ton of vampires here." She paused again. "Okay, Holly and I are on our way. Where are you?" 

Holly and I finished off the rest of the vampires right as Dawn was getting off of the phone. 

"What?" Holly asked to Dawn. 

"Aaron and Colleen need me and you," Dawn said to Holly. 

"We can't leave Mike by himself," Holly told Dawn in response. 

"I'll be fine," I assured Holly and I gave her a small kiss on her forehead. "They wouldn't call unless they really needed you. Get going." 

"Be careful," Holly told me as she walked towards Dawn. In a swirl of green energy they were gone. 

I sighed as I began to walk off into the night. I really wish Holly had just stayed at home where she should be. She had barely begun to mourn yet and she was out risking her life. The only thing she was going to do was get herself hurt or killed. At least now she was with Colleen. As powerful as I am, she would be safer with Colleen. 

"Well there you are," I turned around as I heard a voice from behind me. Standing there with two vampires on either side was Cassio. "I've been looking for you all night. Tonight is the big night after all." I turned around and saw that I was completely surrounded by vampires. 

"The big night huh," I said, trying to put up a brave front. "Tonight is the reason you have all been looking for the Living Vampire?" 

Cassio nodded. "Now I would give you the timeless spiel about how there are two ways that we can do it, but let's get serious here. You're one of the white hats. You're going to fight no matter what, am I right?" 

"You're God damn right I'm going to fight," I said as I jumped out of the way of the vampire that rushed towards me. I pulled out my stake and as he swung around I buried it in his chest. I turned around and there were two vampires right in front of me and another two behind me. I tried to punch and kick them away from me but it wasn't long till there were six vampires holding me down. 

"Now see," Cassio said as he walked towards me. Despite my strength I couldn't pull myself away from the six vampires that were pinning me down. "Wasn't that just a waste of time and energy?" Cassio leaned in close while he was speaking and he punctuated his sentence with a head butt which knocked me unconscious. 

I'm not sure how long I was out but I don't think it was that long. I came to a rather rude awakening when Cassio punched me hard to the face to wake me up. It took me a second to get my bearings but I soon realized that I was bound and that we were in a very dark warehouse. 

"Oh good," Cassio said with a grin. "You're awake." I struggled against the chains that bound me but it was no use. I looked around the room and saw that there were way too many vampires for me to even fight through. It was then that I noticed the other demon in the room. The demon was wearing brown robes and seemed to be about six feet tall. It was bald and his skin seemed more like white scales. His eyes were a yellow color and his lips and nose were very thin. 

"Is this your first encounter with a Ladron demon?" Cassio asked me when he noticed the way I was looking at the demon. "They are marvelous creatures. Here, let's take a closer look." Cassio picked me up and moved me closer to the demon. "They have the most extraordinary talent. They are actual able to manipulate souls and daemons." 

Suddenly, I found myself remembering the terrible feeling that I had in my stomach the night before. I looked around wildly for any possible escape but there was nothing that I could see. I didn't know why, but I knew that I had to get out of there. Even though it wasn't going to help, I began to kick and thrash wildly. Cassio just looked down at me and smiled. 

"It's starting to dawn on you isn't it?" Cassio asked me. "You're starting to realize the situation that you're in." As Cassio talked the demon put a hand on my forehead and began to chant. "Let me fill in a few blanks for you." 

"You see," Cassio said as he paced a few feet from me and the Ladron, "You're existence was foretold many years ago. There are a lot of prophecies about you. That's why all these vampires are at the Hellmouth. Everyone is out to get the power of the Living Vampire. Of course, most of these vampires are so hopelessly bound to the past that they can't possible come up with a plan that would get to your power." 

Cassio stepped closer to me and smiled down at me on the floor. "However," he said as began to talk again. This was definitely someone who was in love with the sound of their own voice. "I'm better than that. I was the only vampire that was able to find you. Even after Cortez stole my information, I was still the one that took you. Are you even remotely aware of the power inside you? Of your potential?" 

At this point, I was actually listening to what Cassio was saying and he knew it. "You have more power inside of you then any vampire in the last millennium," Cassio told me. "That's why it was so important that I found you and had the spell that bound your soul lifted." 

If it was even possible, I was even more sick to my stomach. That's what had happened last night. The spell that protected me was removed. That's why Holly's mom was dead now. It was all because of me. 

"You never would have known what kind of doors were open to you," Cassio said with a smile. "You never would have known what you were capable of." Cassio moved even closer to me and the demon. "Capable of with the right stuff inside of you." 

With that final statement the demon slammed his left hand on my chest and his right hand on Cassio's chest. I screamed out in agony as energy passed through and burned me from the inside out. The whole world went black and then white and then black again. I fell to the floor and had to brace myself. The whole room was spinning and I moved my hand up to my head in an effort to orient myself. 

That's when I realized that I had moved my hand. The chains were no longer binding me. I looked over across the room and several vampires who were moving closer and closer to us. I looked down and watched as some of them were helping Cassio back to his feet. Next to them were more vampires helping someone else to their feet. My eyes went wide as I realized that the person they were helping was me. I looked down at the trembling hands of the Ladron demon only to realize that they were my hands. I fell back against the wall as the room continued to spin. 

"Surprise," I heard my own voice coming from my own mouth. Only now, it wasn't my body anymore. Something else was in it. "Did you see this coming?" The body that used to belong to me now walked towards my new body with purpose. I tried to stand up to him but I was still too dizzy. I stumbled forward to my hands and knees and I felt a kick to my face. I fell back and coughed. 

"Cassio?" I asked weakly, still trying to figure out what had happened. 

"Now you're getting it," Cassio smiled at me through my own lips. "Now you're piecing it together." He walked over towards what must have been the Ladron demon in his previous body. "That was quite a stunt, wasn't it? A little soul shuffle. Now I'm in your body, you're in the Ladron's body, and the Ladron, the only being who could reverse this, is in my body." 

It was at that moment that I noticed the stake in Cassio's hand. Before the Ladron could react, Cassio staked his former body. 

"Whoops," Cassio said as he brushed the dust off of my former clothes. "Looks like it's permanent now. You know, I think I'm going to take this new body out for a test drive." 

I couldn't take it one second longer. I stood up and raced towards Cassio. He had to keep himself from laughing as he blocked my blows delivered from hands that were only slightly stronger than a human. He blocked a few more attacks before he got tired of me and knocked me across the room effortlessly with strength that even I didn't know that my body possessed. 

"Settle down Mike," Cassio said with a chuckle. "Why don't you just sit back and sift through the Ladron's memories. It could be interesting. I know that yours are quite interesting." Cassio continued to walk towards the door. "Lock him up," he said to another vampire as he left. 

"If you hurt her I'll kill you," I said to Cassio as two vampires picked me up. Cassio stopped and turned back towards me. 

"Her?" Cassio said as he looked to be in thought. "Do you mean Holly or Colleen?" I didn't say anything. Cassio just continued to give me my trademark smile. "I guess I'll just have to go after both of them." 

Even though I knew I couldn't get away from the vampires I struggled anyway until they eventually knocked me out. 

***** 

**Jordan**

Eben was handling four vampires very easily. I realized that I could have very easily have just gone home but you never realize when a situation is going to come up where a psychic is going to be needed. 

"We were all wondering why you never work with us," I said to Eben after he finished off the last vampire. "Now I see that you really don't need to work with anyone." 

"Your system seems to be working out," Eben said to me as we began to look for the next vampires. 

"It beats having no one to make stupid conversation with," I admitted to Eben. 

"Stupid conversation would be nice sometimes," Eben said quietly. 

I debated for a moment whether I should say what I wanted to say or not. "You know," I said slowly, "we could really use some help. One of our friends, she had a loss recently." 

We walked in silence for a few moments. "Who?" Eben eventually asked. 

"Holly," I told Eben. "Her mom was vamped." 

"I'm sorry," Eben said to me. "What happened?" 

I shrugged. "It just happened last night. All I know is that Holly's mom attacked and Mike had to stake her." 

"Wow," Eben said quietly. 

"I know," I said back to Eben. 

"I…" Eben trailed off as he seemed to want to keep talking. "I know what she's going through. I lost both of my parents." 

"I'm sorry," I said to Eben. I had no clue what else to say. 

"Don't be," Eben said to me. "It was a while ago." 

"It would be really nice if you joined the circle," I told Eben. "It's not just for the whole demon fighting thing but also the friendship. It's nice to not be alone in this. I know Colleen would like it." 

Eben didn't say anything but he nodded. "It does seem nice." 

We continued to walk and suddenly I felt a rush in my head. I wasn't sure how he did it, but I could feel Aaron in my head. It wasn't like I could hear him talking, but I knew that they needed Eben. 

"Eben," I said as he braced me form the psychic episode. "You need to go right now." 

"What's happening?" Eben asked me. 

"The others need you," I said as I stood on my own two feet. "They're just on the edge of the park on the north side." 

"I can't take you with me," Eben said to me. 

"I'll be fine," I said to Eben. "I'm going to head back to Holly's. Just go." 

"Be careful," Eben said to me. 

"You too," I said to Eben. He nodded and teleported away. 

All by myself, I began to walk down the deserted streets of Sunnydale. It was late and everything was closed down. The residents of Sunnydale were good at picking up on Hellmouth vibes. 

I walked back to Holly's but no one was there. Aaron's car wasn't even in the driveway. I looked around and didn't see anyone around me. Since no one was back at the house I decided that I would go back out to see if my friends needed my help. There was no need for me to be resting when they could need me. Reaching out with my psychic senses, I made sure that there were no vampires nearby that I just didn't see. 

Halfway to the park I felt a really strange tingle creep up the back of my neck. Looking around, I spotted Mike racing towards me down the sidewalk. 

"Hey," I said to Mike as he caught up to me. 

"Jordan," Mike said. I wasn't sure, but it seemed like Mike had forgotten my name for a second. 

"Are you okay?" I asked Mike. He looked disoriented. 

"I'm fine," Mike said. "I feel good." 

"Are you sure?" I asked Mike. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was definitely wrong. "You seem sick or something." 

"I'm telling you," Mike said as he tried to laugh off my concern. "I'm fine." 

"Where are Holly and Dawn?" I asked Mike. There was something that Mike wasn't telling me. 

"Holly and Dawn?" Mike said. He looked like he was trying to remember. "Aaron called them," he eventually told me. "They had to go help Colleen." 

I was about to say something else when I spotted three vampires across the street. "Mike!" Mike hesitated for a second before he looked over to where I was pointing. He hesitated for another second before he ran off towards the vampires, giving me a quick double take before he left. 

I stood on the other side of the street and watched as Mike made short work of the three vampires. He tossed them around like they were rag dolls. He threw one vampire at least twenty yards. Beyond just the sudden increase in power, Mike definitely wasn't fighting like himself. There was more rage in his movements. Was he worked up over what had happened to Holly's mom? I watched as Mike picked up the last vampire. To my amazement, Mike ripped the head right off of the vampire, turning him into dust. 

"What was that?" I asked Mike as I ran over to him. "Mike, there is something seriously wrong here and if you're not going to tell me what it is then I'm going to find out for myself." 

That's when I felt it. I hadn't even really meant to reach out with my powers but it had happened almost instinctively. I had reached out with my mind and the person who I felt wasn't Mike. It was someone I had sensed before. 

"Psychic," Mike said with sudden realization. He looked down at me through eyes that were definitely not Mike's. There wasn't a trace of any of the qualities that were fundamental to the Mike that I knew. There weren't any qualities of humanity at all in his eyes. 

"Cassio?" I asked in disbelief. 

With movements that were too fast for me to even process I found myself held by the sides of my head and lifted above the ground. 

"I guess now that I'm in this new human body that I'm not immune to mind reading," Cassio said with a sickening grin. "I guess you know too much now." 

A million thoughts raced through my mind as I started into eyes that belonged to Mike but were linked to Cassio's soul. But Cassio didn't have a soul. Cassio was a daemon. Why hadn't I sensed it before? Why had it taken me so long to realize that the person who now held my life in his hands wasn't my friend but rather my enemy? 

As I dangled in the air I worried about my friends. I worried about what would happen to them. I worried about what this would do to them. I worried that maybe that this was all going to be too much for Holly. She had been through way too much. More than any person should ever have to go through. There was nothing I wanted more than for her to get some relief. 

I thought about Colleen next. She took everything that happened in this town to heart. She thought that everything that went wrong was her fault. More than that, she loved Mike. This was going to be so hard for her. It was also going to be hard for Dawn too. Dawn was the heart of our group. 

And what about Aaron? Mike and I were Aaron's best friends. What was he going to do now? And more than anyone else, I thought about Mike. Where was he? What had Cassio done to him? Was he even still alive? 

Suddenly, I knew that Mike was still alive. I'm not sure how but I just knew. I was amazed at how bright it suddenly was outside even though the sun was down. Everything was getting so bright. The whole world was going white. There were more people around me now too. It felt so much better now that I wasn't alone. They were taking me. They told me that it was time for me to go, but at that moment all I could think about was what Aaron had said earlier. 

"_I can't go,_" I told them. "_I'm not done yet._" 

"_Yes you are,_" they said back to me. I could tell that they were right. I was done. There was nothing left for me here. I still had one last question though. 

"_Did I matter?_" I asked them. "_Did I make a difference?_" 

Although I couldn't see who they were or where they were taking me, I knew that they were smiling. "_Of course,_" they told me. "_And now you deserve a rest._" 

And with that last thought I let go of everything I ever knew. 

***** 

Cassio looked through Mike's eyes down at the lifeless body of Jordan Clarke. 

*****

Author's Note: Yeah, another dark chapter. This was so hard for me to write. Although I knew it was going to happen, I really didn't want any of my characters to die. But it's unrealistic for no one to die in Sunnydale. It was just really hard to kill Jordan though. Anyway, please review this chapter. I'm more interested in people's thoughts on this chapter than any other. Was it very predictable? Are you worried that this season is just going to be exactly the same as season two of Buffy? If you are, then I'll end your worries right now. It's going to be different, I promise. Anyway, please keep reading. And if Jordan was your favorite character then I'm very sorry.


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